Thread by @sbearbergman

A story for #WorldAIDSDay.

The first time I ever saw the @aids_memorial Quilt was in the big gym at @Harvard, in 1990. I was 16, and though a large portion was displayed I only remember one panel – a huge white square with a
Star of David embroidered richly in the middle, 1/5

a shimmering watery blue of metallic thread, and beneath it, in silver letters, the Hebrew word Zachor – remember.

I… dissolved. I began to sob – again – and reflexively I started to say Kaddish, the Jewish
prayer for the dead, over the panel, this ungainly teenager, 2/5

standing in a gymnasium
choking out the words of Kaddish between sobs. I was barely through the first line before
a hand slipped into mine and a voice joined me, a gaunt and grizzled man whose own
Kaddish probably didn’t wait a year. 3/5

Then I felt a hand on my shoulder, and then the heat of another human behind me, and by the time I had finished the prayer and stopped speaking (to cry some more) there were a dozen people huddled around me, 4/5

red-eyed and lovely, leaning their heads into mine, snot bubbles and wet sleeves, grieving with me for these beloved dead. Eventually, I knew some names on that quilt. On that day though, they were neither friends nor strangers but still, always, family.

aidsmemorial.org/interactive-ai…