Coming to my AIDS

Sometimes you never know how bad you are doing until someone that you think is doing worse offers to help.

I have a friend in Seattle who has had AIDS longer than I have known him and I have known him going on 15 years, which says a lot about strange friendships and even more about modern medicine. He is lucky to be alive and every now and then I call him and am just a little surprised to hear his voice.

Over the years we have learned to communicate solely via email, either because I was traveling or he was traveling, or for what ever reason. What is interesting about our friendship is we met at a mutual friends party and when I ask the mutual friend about him, he always says he has no clue who I am talking about. When I ask the AIDS man about the party, he claims to not remember. You know you are in trouble when my memory is the accurate one.

So, on a day when someone in my office told me that I have lost a lot of weight, to which I replied that I had a lot to lose and she said, not that much, I got an email. See, sometimes you really do get a wake up call from the strangest places. My AIDS friend was emailing. We had chatted a couple of weeks ago, right when I was beginning this trial phase of my life, heck till June I am nothing if not an experiment, and my friend wrote me this email that basically said he would be honored to move here for a while and take care of me.

The guy with AIDS is offering to move in and take care of me.

"You don't know what you have till it's gone..."

What I find compelling about that offer is a number of things. First, I could use the help, second I would never accept the help and third, how strange that someone with a chronic and probably deadly disease if offering to help me? What's worse? I could use the help, if I was not so stubborn and hard headed.

Then again, having someone to drive, help, make sure I don't miss out of medication or double done on medication, that would be welcome.

What is sad to me is that about a year ago I had another friend who said that no matter what would happen in our little world, we would always be friends and just a phone call away. Last week I called and the number was changed, no forwarding number. How ironic, this "friend" who was all about integrity and friendship would disappear right when the call is important, which another friend, a great distance away, in a much more compromised health condition sort of way, would offer to drop everything and move for a few months.

Funny.

Anyway, I wrote back and thanked my Seattle AIDS friend and said, no, I like to do these sorts of things as a loner, just in case.