AIDS is not a world away hidden in some box. It is here. AIDS will claim the lives of all who cross its path. It is a disease hat doesn't care who you are or where you are from. So far, people seem oblivious to the horror of It. It is as if people feel they have some kind of force field that it can not penetrate. AIDS has penetrated my force field not once but numerous times. If people do not become more educated and safer with their chosen intimate encounters AIDS may be knocking on their doors. There is no cure nor is there any question that if people continue to act invincible AIDS will win!

When I first heard about AIDS, I looked at the disease as if it were something that would never touch my life. I thought of it as a disease that existed in some third world country. I thought of AIDS as a horrific tragedy but not my tragedy. The first knock I received inside my invincible bubble came when I was about ten years old. I lived with my father and my little brother. Neither my brother nor I had seen or heard from our mom in four years. Suddenly, out of the blue, we started talking to her. Shortly after we started talking to her, she told us she had cancer. Here it was my mom suddenly back in my life and she was dying.
A few months later, she came down to visit us. It was wonderful being in her arms and seeing her smile. It wasn't all good though. It was on this visit that my older sister called franticly begging my dad not to sleep with my mom. Finally, she gave an explanation. My mom didn't have cancer. She had HIV I didn't know anything about the disease other than once infected it was a death sentence. So I begin to research everything I could about the disease. My mom disappeared before we could ask her about it and later on the phone she wouldn't talk about it much. Through my sister, we were kept informed about my mother's condition.

I did not see my mother's day to day life but I knew what kind of person she was. Though I wouldn't swear my life on the information I received, I do believe 99 percent of it to be authentic. My mother was a wild woman and she lived by her own rules. She had a rough life growing up. Although she tried numerous times to pull herself out, she couldn't. I hold no anger for any choice she made because they were her choices to make. I do wish she had been stronger and had made wiser choices. Once she found out she was sick, she decided to rule life regardless of the consequence.

My mother was a drug

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