Graying of AIDS Portraits

Anna, age 64

Anna Fowlkes, 64 | Baltimore, MD

I met my husband in a night club. He was one of the musicians there and I used to go because I liked to dance. He was the love of my life. We had a wonderful marriage, you know …

Bill, age 77

Bill Rydwels, 77 | Chicago, IL

No matter what we do, sex is a beautiful gift, because it is such an exhilarating feeling, and it’s such a positive way of getting the feeling that I am wanted in this world …

Dee, age 57

Dee, 57 | Newark, NJ

I don’t feel old. I never thought of myself as being 57, 60. I didn’t think that far, you know. I feel young at heart. I like to have fun. I don’t know, just being happy. …

Larry, age 61

Larry, 61 | Springfield, IL

I wanted to do something that made a difference, and that’s why I took the job for Mayor Daley as his representative to the gay & lesbian community. …

Thomas, age 58, and Linda, 61

Linda, 61 & Thomas, 58 | NYC, NY

Linda: I look at him how he was, and I look at him now, I feel so bad. Because I remember the vibrant Thomas, you know, not the Thomas that can’t hardly get up. …

Robert, age 75

Robert Brewster, 75 | NYC, NY 

I was always working on my music. That was a part of who I was. I was practicing instead of going out to play baseball or do sports. That was in Birmingham, Alabama. And I left Birmingham when I was sixteen. …

Ronald, age 63

Ronald Johnson, 63 | Washington, DC

Certainly, since the advent of protease inhibitors and the real progress in antiretroviral medication, the ability to treat HIV infection and slow down the progression to serious illness …

Sue, age 73

Sue Saunders, 73 | Fort Lauderdale, FL 

I’ve been to places like that where people over 50 live. And these ladies, older ladies, say: oh, but he’s so good looking, and he’s so clean. And he’s such a good dancer. Does she ever ask him if he’s ever been tested? …

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