We Don't Have AIDS, But We Suffer, Too

摘要

I was 9 years old when I found out my father was ill. It was 1994, but I can remember my mother's words as if it were yesterday: "Kerrel, I don't want you to take food from your father, because him have the AIDS. Be very careful when you are around him." AIDS wasn't something we talked about in Jamaica when I was growing up. What I knew about AIDS could be summed up like this: If you were HIV-positive, you were going to die. You were going to suffer before you died. And you didn't expect anyone to treat you well, either.