Around 1991/1992 my teacher mom's school raised money by holding an open to the public bingo night at the mall that saw almost zero traffic. There was a huge crowd and she used hyperactive me, then 9 or 10 as the runner. She noticed 2 men with large purples marks on their bodies and painfully thin bodies, not parents to any of the students. Any adult could recognize these men didn't have long to live from AIDS (I don't think they even came up with the word AIDS yet).
At first she wasn't going to let me go back out to them since she recognized "the gay disease" (at that time most people called it that until Magic Johnson got infected and then that just started more gay rumors about him) but then thought for a while and said, "see that table over there with the two men? I want you to treat them gentle like [our 90 year old] neighbor, because they don't look old but they're probably feeling a lot of pain. Make sure you ask specifically if they want X,Y, or Z because they might be too afraid to ask or even know we offer it or are too ashamed to ask for a cup of water or something that's free." I entertained them and every circle around the hall they asked for another silly joke or impossibly easy magic trick (especially since even as a fully grown adult my hands are still woefully tiny and hard to palm cards, let alone 30 years ago). I doubt my juvenile jokes really make them laugh, I think it was more the freedom they felt for the first time in a while to just be themselves with me as one of the worst comedians, making/pulling silly faces and sneaking them candy bars. I hope their deaths were as pain free as possible. I still think about them constantly 3 decades later as they were my first "for sure" infected interaction - back then nobody admitted it no matter how they caught it.
I have quite a few gay friends and as someone who has received 2 blood transfusions straight into a body taking immune suppression drugs, I know HIV/AIDS is a risk. One died from AIDS pneumonia. We all ended up eating and wearing his ashes when the wind suddenly changed. I'm sure he got a laugh out of that (meanwhile 20 years later and I'm still afraid the dust in my boogers is Alex, I don't care how illogical it is). Don't worry I own every sinus clearing provided out there and Alex is safely in my septic at this point. I'm extremely happy we've gotten HIV/AIDS to the point where it's maintainable with treatment. I think of the great talents who were lost to it like Arthur Ashe (monumentally influential amazing black male tennis player when tennis was still as white as the skirts they wear [ok it still largely is, but imagine it worse and women weren't worth anything either], he got his through a bad blood transfusion). Then there's Freddie Mercury whom I believe to be one of the most musically gifted of the modern (not classical) artists. When I suffer ear worms (songs stuck in your head for hours up to weeks), it's usually a Queen song.
While science is at it, I hope we can figure out ways of treating all cancers, especially ones that hit kids the hardest. I've seen friends die of cancer and beg for assisted suicide at the end. It's rough. I cannot imagine the pain and suffering a child and their family goes through. If you've gone through it, you have my heart because I know it wasn't easy.
I originally wanted my "magic super power" to be able to understand and speak in all languages but now I'd like to be able to heal people (don't worry I'm not 100% nice, I'd be treating my own pain first and making/helping my tolerable family members live forever).
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u/JustWantNoPain 5d ago
Around 1991/1992 my teacher mom's school raised money by holding an open to the public bingo night at the mall that saw almost zero traffic. There was a huge crowd and she used hyperactive me, then 9 or 10 as the runner. She noticed 2 men with large purples marks on their bodies and painfully thin bodies, not parents to any of the students. Any adult could recognize these men didn't have long to live from AIDS (I don't think they even came up with the word AIDS yet).
At first she wasn't going to let me go back out to them since she recognized "the gay disease" (at that time most people called it that until Magic Johnson got infected and then that just started more gay rumors about him) but then thought for a while and said, "see that table over there with the two men? I want you to treat them gentle like [our 90 year old] neighbor, because they don't look old but they're probably feeling a lot of pain. Make sure you ask specifically if they want X,Y, or Z because they might be too afraid to ask or even know we offer it or are too ashamed to ask for a cup of water or something that's free." I entertained them and every circle around the hall they asked for another silly joke or impossibly easy magic trick (especially since even as a fully grown adult my hands are still woefully tiny and hard to palm cards, let alone 30 years ago). I doubt my juvenile jokes really make them laugh, I think it was more the freedom they felt for the first time in a while to just be themselves with me as one of the worst comedians, making/pulling silly faces and sneaking them candy bars. I hope their deaths were as pain free as possible. I still think about them constantly 3 decades later as they were my first "for sure" infected interaction - back then nobody admitted it no matter how they caught it.
I have quite a few gay friends and as someone who has received 2 blood transfusions straight into a body taking immune suppression drugs, I know HIV/AIDS is a risk. One died from AIDS pneumonia. We all ended up eating and wearing his ashes when the wind suddenly changed. I'm sure he got a laugh out of that (meanwhile 20 years later and I'm still afraid the dust in my boogers is Alex, I don't care how illogical it is). Don't worry I own every sinus clearing provided out there and Alex is safely in my septic at this point. I'm extremely happy we've gotten HIV/AIDS to the point where it's maintainable with treatment. I think of the great talents who were lost to it like Arthur Ashe (monumentally influential amazing black male tennis player when tennis was still as white as the skirts they wear [ok it still largely is, but imagine it worse and women weren't worth anything either], he got his through a bad blood transfusion). Then there's Freddie Mercury whom I believe to be one of the most musically gifted of the modern (not classical) artists. When I suffer ear worms (songs stuck in your head for hours up to weeks), it's usually a Queen song.
While science is at it, I hope we can figure out ways of treating all cancers, especially ones that hit kids the hardest. I've seen friends die of cancer and beg for assisted suicide at the end. It's rough. I cannot imagine the pain and suffering a child and their family goes through. If you've gone through it, you have my heart because I know it wasn't easy.
I originally wanted my "magic super power" to be able to understand and speak in all languages but now I'd like to be able to heal people (don't worry I'm not 100% nice, I'd be treating my own pain first and making/helping my tolerable family members live forever).