Have their families disengaged or grouped together? Or a combination? I am asking because I went to a lovely party/wake last Saturday that a supportive family threw for their son, who succombed after living with AIDS for nine years. He stopped his meds two years ago and slowly gave in. There was such an outpouring of love that it really got to me. I don’t know anyone else with the disease, but this family was great.
My best friend has been HIV+ for something like 12 years. I don’t know how it affects his relationship with his family because I’ve never been with him when his family was around. They are sort of scattered around the country anyway.
FTR, he is doing well on meds, and last time we talked about it his numbers were actually improving because of a certain cocktail combo he recently started.
See the movie It’s My Party for a heart wrenching story about an AIDS family crisis.
I know quite a few, yes. Depends on the person.
My friend, Jeremy died 4 years ago. He had lived with AIDS for almost 10 years, and he was only 29.
Parts of his family were great, after the initial diagnosis. His parents and siblings really rallied around him, even his father, finally.
The extended family-well, some were great, some were horrid, and some just were-they seemed uncomfortable with AIDS, yet wanted to be there for the family.
It was a true mixture of people. He was the first person I knew who truly lived with AIDS.
Yes, my former husband died 7 years ago.
His sib and half sibs came to visit him, but our friends in the neighborhood were much more like family and were quite wonderful.
My brother in law has been HIV+ for quite some time. No one seems to talk about it much, but he seemed quite healthy the last time I saw him (a couple of years ago), so I’m not quite sure if its progressed much since then. His mother flies down to see him several times a year. I wish that we could see him. He hasn’t seen his nieces yet.