Since the fall of 2019, six women, some from the art world, others retired social workers, had labored on two AIDS quilts devoted to the memories of the artist David Wojnarowicz and his partner, Tom Rauffenbart.
The women converged from all over New York City on the neighborhood of Washington Heights, at the home of Anita Vitale, who had met Mr.
Rauffenbart, a fellow social worker, in the 1980s. Then, in mid-March, in what you might call a sad cosmic coincidence, their work was interrupted by the arrival on the scene of another pandemic.
Mr. Rauffenbart, who learned he had AIDS before his partner but lived until last year, had always wanted to create a quilt for the artist, who died in 1992.