the AIDS Memorial on Instagram, and I continue to follow that page. It’s a daily reminder of heartbreaking stories about the lives of lovers, partners, best friends, sons, brother, uncles, and mixed among them daughters, moms, sisters and aunts, all who succumbed to the disease.
Forty years is half a lifetime, and millions of lifetimes were cut short by the insidiousness of AIDS. The lives of survivors were radically altered.
And millions still live with HIV. If you did live through those worst days some 40 years ago, you’re now in your late 50s and beyond, and there is a sense of either questionable guilt, solemn gratitude — or both — about still being alive.