6 Comments
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Bobette Buster's avatar

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for posting this letter. I lost two brothers to AIDS - 1988 and 1995. We all endured an almost unfathomable era of tragedy during that time.

Jenn Kirby's avatar

I'm so, so sorry for your loss. Nobody deserves an awful disease like AIDS. 💔

Jenn Kirby's avatar

I'm a lifelong North Carolinian, and now a PFLAG mom and staunch mama bear... Jesse was the actual worst. Until the ones we have now.

I would've loved to know these ladies. They were badass. Thank you for sharing them. They were friends until the end.

https://www.theassemblync.com/news/politics/patsy-clarke-eloise-vaughn-jesse-helms/

Sheryl Garratt's avatar

This is beautiful. Thank you for sharing it. I lost so many great friends in the 80s and 90s, and I miss them still. But the world lost their talents. Who knows what they might have created, discovered, done had they not died so young? Now I have several friends who have been HIV+ for decades, thanks to science, medical research, facts – all those things that seem to be falling out of favour this post-truth world.

Dr Michael J Wagner's avatar

Powerful, Shawn. Thank you.