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BISBEE — “I’m living proof that you can live with someone who has AIDS,” said Cheree Johnson at the dedication ceremony held Monday night for the 10 panels of the 46,000-piece U.S. quilt that memorializes 91,000 people who have died over the past 30 years of the disease.
Her husband, Reuel Donald Johnson, developed AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) in 1983 and passed away in 1991. She began his quilt panel shortly after his death as she had done for four other friends who died of the disease that robs its victims of life and dignity.
“We know how it spreads now. It’s important for the kids of today to know that, too,” she said.
Johnson stood before the quilt on display at the Copper Queen Hotel where a special service was being held to bless the quilts, the people they represented and those who loved them. It carries the panel with Reuel’s name — the one she made for him. Tears come to her eyes as she fondly remembers the man she loved.
  
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“He’s been gone for 17 years now and I still talk to his mother. I believe that if you keep speaking a person’s name they aren’t really gone. They continue to live. Having these panels in Bisbee is going to have a huge impact. It makes the disease real and raises awareness,” she added.
On the panel, she put flags from the countries where he had lived, the states he had lived in, a felt truck that held the metal plate with the VIN number of his mobile automotive repair truck. She also stuck a letter she wrote to him after he died and sewed it in a little pocket. She doesn’t remember exactly what she wrote. She sent the quilt around the country and to Canada so that his family and friends could add things to it. His mother sewed on the first Christmas ornament Reule made — a little bottle cap with glitter and a ribbon. His sister-in-law sewed on rose buds.
It was that way with many of the panels, friends and family joined together to honor and remember their children, their husbands, wives, friends and loved ones. Over 15 million people have seen the quilt, some in its entirety, some as portions of it. It would cover nearly 1.3 million square feet — the equivalent of 275 NCAA basketball courts with walkways. It contains 52.25 miles of fabric if all the three-foot by six-foot panels were laid end-to-end.
It makes one stop and think about the horror that came about when thousands of gay men and drug users were dying from an unknown disease. No one seemed to care back in the 1970s or even into the 1980s. There were fears, some warranted, some not.
Tim Van Nattan, 61, saw the epidemic begin as a friend of his dropped dead in the street.
“That was the beginning of the horror to me,” he told the gathering. “When I was diagnosed, I learned to go to bed at night and thank the good Lord for the good day I had had. We all need to do that whether we are dying or not.”
He has suffered with AIDS since 1983. He considers himself one of the lucky ones. His medication is covered under the Veterans Administration. At $52,000 a year, he would not be able to afford the chemical concoction that keeps him alive. Just six months ago, he thought he was dying. His medication had to be adjusted.
He told those gathered at the Copper Queen Hotel for the dedication service that he had spent five years in a wheelchair due to the neuropathy that took away the feeling in his legs. That can come from the virus as well as from the medications.
“If you have not been in a monogamous relationship, you need to get yourself tested,” he stressed. “If you have a partner or spouse with HIV and you have HIV, if you don’t protect yourself, you can create a new strain of the virus.”
The virus takes over one’s own immune system in AIDS and turns it to its advantage.
“You can have one of the wimpy strains, but if your partner has a different more aggressive strain, it can become a super-virus when they combine,” he explained.
He, like the members of Bisbee Pride who brought the quilt panels to Bisbee for display, wants to impress on young people that HIV/AIDS is not something to take lightly. It’s not just a matter of taking a bunch of drugs and you go on with your life. The virus never leaves your system. It’s always there, lurking, waiting for the opportunity to replicate and spread, said Van Nattan. “This disease is spreading faster than it has in years. Get yourself tested.”
That’s the whole purpose of bringing the quilt panels to Bisbee for display during the Bisbee Pride Festival, said Adam Lamb, one of the founders of Bisbee Pride and the festival. The panels are on display at several Old Bisbee locations and City Hall. At each of the locations, are speakers who will address the problems of HIV/AIDS.
HIV 101 will represented by members of the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation; HIV Risk Management will be discussed by COPE Community Services; and the list goes on.
HIV/AIDS has been spreading rapidly again. This time to heterosexuals — teenagers and young adults.
Lamb said, “If we can touch just one person or two people and make them stop and think about the dangers and save them from this disease, we will have succeeded. We must raise awareness.”
In blessing the quilts, the Rev. Mary Harris, a local pastor, said, “This lifestyle is in conflict with my denomination and with anybody and anyone who chooses to judge others ... We are in a divine relationship with God, and as such we are all connected in that divine relationship. We need to continue to work to let people know this isn’t about sex. It’s about loving and caring ... This is my friend, my brother, my sister. These are my people, too.”
Herald/Review reporter Shar Porier can be reached at 515-4692 or by e-mail at shar.porier@bisbeereview.net.
Leah wrote on Jun 19, 2008 10:54 PM:
Love always! "