@tucker_shaw When I was I guess 14, Mom told me my uncle John had HIV. My big, strong uncle John - we have pictures of him swinging my sister and I around on the National Mall, one in each hand, like a carousel.
I was SO angry. Still am. I hadn’t spent enough time with him. Still haven’t. 1/
I was SO angry. Still am. I hadn’t spent enough time with him. Still haven’t. 1/
@tucker_shaw And we decided to go out to Seattle to visit him and she had to tell me that he couldn’t walk. An infection had attacked him with his weakened immune system, and he couldn’t walk. He was trying to learn how to again, how to strengthen his muscles and walk again 2/
@tucker_shaw I’m not sure how much time we spent in Seattle - a couple of weeks? - but I wheeled him around, took him to the hospital, watched him try to walk, helped him to the bathtub. At the end of it we drove him to my grandparents lakehouse in British Columbia. 3/
@tucker_shaw I watched him walk again, across the beaches he had walked on as a child. I’ve never witnessed a greater feat of sheer human will - by all right he should never have walked again. I’ve never had a better summer. I cherish it often, even 25 years later. 4/
@tucker_shaw My uncle died the following year. I wept with my mother in the kitchen when she told me, endlessly, sobbing. I’m crying now, writing this, 25 years later. We went to New York to close out his apartment he used when he did New York soap opera gigs. 5/
@tucker_shaw His partner gave me a gray v-neck tee shirt and a pair of loafers that belonged to my uncle. I wore the shirt until it disintegrated and the shoes until I literally wore the soles off, although both were probably 2 sizes too large. 6/
@tucker_shaw If people think HIV advanced a cause, or shined a spotlight, that’s up to them. If so, what a price to pay. I still miss my uncle so much its hard to think about something like that. END
