Everyone I Love

I'm 62 years old had the HIV virus. Before doctor's and scientists knew what was going on I played drums in a jazz band when I was 15 years old and became an intravenous drug user shared needles in 1978 and I had a daughter that same year most of the people I was using drugs with started getting sick no one knew why in 1980.

Coming home clean

I went to prison. A month after I got there, I ran into a guy I used to do drugs with. I went to say hi to him and he told me to get away from him. Years went by. I came home in 1983, clean, no drugs. I met a young lady and a guy was trying to turn into a streetwalker to sell her body. She was only 16 years old. I get into a fight with him and saved her. I talked her into going to school and I fell in love with her. She went away to college when she was 18 and I lost contact because I went back to my daughter's mother. That didn't work for me because her mother was still using drugs. I met the woman I would marry-- my soulmate. She had a 4-year-old son and was pregnant with another.

Facing losses in my family

After 3 years, my wife started getting sick. The doctors told me she had meningitis. One day, I see the wife of my friend that told me to get away from him in prison. I told her what happened to me and her husband. She told me her husband died from AIDS, and a month after that, the young lady I saved from the pimp found me to tell me we had a little girl.

I had to go see my daughter so I went to her house every day with my wife, who I could not leave alone. At the end of the week, my baby daughter got very sick. I carried her to the hospital where she died in my arms. Two months after that, my wife was very sick in the hospital. She told me she wanted to go home, not knowing what she was really saying. I went to talk to the doctors, and when I went back to her room, she looked at me, took a breath, and died.

I don't tell my story

A couple of months after that the young lady I saved that had my youngest daughter died. I asked for forgiveness every day even though I didn't know it doesn't make it easier. I don't tell my story for people to feel sorry because I raised 9 kids as a single parent all college while dealing with this virus, cancer meningitis in my brain. Now, I have 16 grandchildren and am very rich with love, but always sad when I'm alone like now. Thank You for letting me share my story and I pray my story can help someone.

Interested in sharing your thoughts about living with HIV?