I remember as a teenager growing up there were two people I was in close contact with that were suffering from HIV/AIDS.
The first story, I was in grade school, maybe 7th grade, when there was a younger gal who was maybe in the 5th grade that was rumored to be HIV positive. She ended up telling everyone that she indeed was HIV positive as the rumors surfaced. At the time, no one was really informed on the dangers or the ways that HIV was transmittable, all we knew is that it was a deadly disease. Sad to say, she was treated very differently by her peers after the confession. I, on the other hand, never treated her differently and tried to make others aware that she wasn't contagious as a flu virus. This story has a happy ending. She in turn actually did not have the virus and is living a happy and fulfilling life. She is now married and has two children.
For more information on how HIV and AIDS are transmitted, check out this website provided by Aids.gov http://aids.gov/basic/.
The sad story is that there was another gal that I knew and she was a few years older than me at the time but she was only 17. I became aware that she had full blown AIDS when she appeared to have open wounds on her face. She was part Chinese and German, beautiful girl.
She shared her story with me. She was actually raped and molested as a young child from her Uncle that had contracted the virus intravenously through drug abuse. I only had the opportunity to know her for about 8 months before she passed away from the virus before her 18th birthday. Unfortunately, she didn't have access to the opportunities that are available now for HIV/AIDS patients and she had no family and no insurance. She did touch a lot of lives at her young age though and as a young teenager myself, I remember gathering money from local businesses and neighborhoods to bury her since she had no family. I still visit her grave from time to time. It is amazing how someone can touch you so much in a short period of time.
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Thanks for the share Susan.
I remember as a teenager growing up there were two people I was in close contact with that were suffering from HIV/AIDS.
The first story, I was in grade school, maybe 7th grade, when there was a younger gal who was maybe in the 5th grade that was rumored to be HIV positive. She ended up telling everyone that she indeed was HIV positive as the rumors surfaced. At the time, no one was really informed on the dangers or the ways that HIV was transmittable, all we knew is that it was a deadly disease. Sad to say, she was treated very differently by her peers after the confession. I, on the other hand, never treated her differently and tried to make others aware that she wasn't contagious as a flu virus. This story has a happy ending. She in turn actually did not have the virus and is living a happy and fulfilling life. She is now married and has two children.
For more information on how HIV and AIDS are transmitted, check out this website provided by Aids.gov http://aids.gov/basic/.
The sad story is that there was another gal that I knew and she was a few years older than me at the time but she was only 17. I became aware that she had full blown AIDS when she appeared to have open wounds on her face. She was part Chinese and German, beautiful girl.
She shared her story with me. She was actually raped and molested as a young child from her Uncle that had contracted the virus intravenously through drug abuse. I only had the opportunity to know her for about 8 months before she passed away from the virus before her 18th birthday. Unfortunately, she didn't have access to the opportunities that are available now for HIV/AIDS patients and she had no family and no insurance. She did touch a lot of lives at her young age though and as a young teenager myself, I remember gathering money from local businesses and neighborhoods to bury her since she had no family. I still visit her grave from time to time. It is amazing how someone can touch you so much in a short period of time.
October 4, 2008 - 10:21amThis Comment
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