We're STILL Here! 2011 World HIV/AIDS Day

My name is Justin B. Terry-Smith I've decided to do this journal to hopefully save someone's life. I needed it for it is therapy for me and maybe hopefully for others as well. I call to your sense as human beings to send this out to as many people as you know, who knows?, it might save their lives even yours. Listen and Learn from my story.
"A man who won't die for something is not fit to live." Martin Luther King, Jr

"changing the names so that I protect people's identities. I received this e-mail from a woman I'm going to call Amanda. She and her son discovered he was HIV+ and this letter made me cry.......twice."
I also try to do the same here in The HIVe; and I have screwed up several times as I learned, along My Journey... If you get an e-mail from The HIVe and you are identified; it is because you have a public persona with relevance to our Cause and we want the public to know that you have been alerted!

Special AVNK Dinner To Honor Bruce & Catherine Mullan 8/25/11

PLEASE RSVP Bill Siller IF YOU PLAN ON COMING! Or if you have any questions.
*We are starting our gathering at 5:30PM to honor Bruce & Catherine Mullan for their foresight into the AIDS crisis and helping in forming AVNK. Mike Connley, AVNK President, will officiate the proceedings with various people speaking their gratitude for all they have done. Bruce recently died and Catherine plans to be there with her family and friends. We will continue with the dinner at 6:00PM.
Dinner will be at Trinity in Covington on Madison Ave., Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at 6:00PM.

Greetings Y’all!
http://www.mwcltonline.org/southbankHIVe/index.html
Once my neighbor ‘CrazyJack’ showed up with taters to fry, I missed the 1st Opportunity to kill 2 Birds with... a single hike up to the Police Chief’s CommUNITY Forum with a pit stop @ The MACC for dinner! Then after his usual tip & he left, I’d missed dinner and sat down to browse the net, found Justin’s Journal, which made me think of the Family that welcomed me back to No Ky two years after I found out I was HIV+ in 1991 –& yes, I always like to drop the fact that it’s the same year as the Magic started!


It made me think of Bruce & Catherine, Judy –my old St Bernard’s grade school teacher with an adopted gay son (whose wedding, Southern Food Service ala Me catered!) and the many others whose names escape me ... I’m sure they’re on a card somewhere in the boxes and files thru-out The HIVe! Thankfully, my MOM went thru the trauma of my “official” Coming OUT back in 1978, so it was great to find a group that she could now take some comfort with. Wally, as well while he was still here... Anyway, missed the Police Chiefs gig but caught a FB post earlier in which I could express my wonderment at CPD tactics...


So here I am, snug as a ... in The HIVe, NO wait, I don’t mean that kinda bug -I bought the stuff myself and sprayed and bb bombed the place in time for Kevin’s visit from St. Louis. Still waiting on him since he fell ill, but haven’t seen ANY unwelcome guests! Key is to keep spraying where eggs may have been laid and suckin’ it –with a vacumn! It’s fitting that I happen to take respite to remember on the eve of SPIRIT Day Around the World!

Discussing World HIV/AIDS Day with No Ky Health's Chief Educator, Bob Ford, this afternoon; he came up with this idea that could be incorporated in lieu of or conjunction with the CandleLight Vigil/March aspect that we'd like to include along with a Public Gathering/Ceremony at the World Peace Bell!

 

Personally; I want to let Catherine, Judy, Michael, Liz, Carl... and all of our HIVe Community on The South Bank in the Northern Kentucky HIV/AIDS Care Region from Covington, our Mosaic Capitol City – that this Year’s FOR YOU & In Memory of all the other UnAcknowledged victims of HIV/AIDS! The Link I started this was will lead you to the beginning of OUR Journey as I have chronicled it...

Shortly after AIDS Volunteers of Northern Kentucky was established; I tested positive in October of 1991 while living in Cincinnati. Then, AVOC -the model for AVNK's establishment with the hope that they'd grow into; guided me thru the first years as I began treatment, applied for every benefit & program I qualified for and made it possible for me to weather the devastation from losing my job @ Perkins after I disclosed my HIV status. In 1993; after I had secured my Social Security Disability Benefits and qualified for HUD/HOPWA/Sct8 Housing assistance, I returned to my roots on The South Bank and settled in the Covington neighborhood of Lewisburg. Once settled, I began to wonder what to do with the Rest of the Life I had left. Enter Bruce & Catherine, Judy, Rick... along with the AVNK Family to welcome me back & help me along My Journey. Like any family, we've had our ups and downs. I hope I will be able to attend the special AVNK Monthly Dinner & Soicial this coming Tuesday, but if I don't I just wanted to let y'all know how much you mean to me...