FLASHBACK 1986

"those days are all gone now but one thing is true...when i look and i find i still love you"
so, i move to the carolina's. and one of the first people i meet is rodney. he is a very dear friend's partner. rodney and i will have a love/hate relationship that lasts 3 years. "you really should be wearing a different shade of eyeshadow, trust me".  why should i trust you rodney? you have never worn eyeshadow...ugh. "let's go christmas shopping for our men! we'll have christmas cocktails, and buy presents, and gossip! it'll be fun!". omg!! i have had the best day, rodney!! let's do it again tomorrow?!! "i really think you should go with more of a pine stain over that walnut. uh huh.". nothing in this house is 'pine' rodney. that would look stupid. "you are just the sweetest person. everybody that crosses your path is a better person for it." (tear drop) rodney, that is the sweetest thing ANYBODY has ever said to me. but i could really say the same about you... "you probably shouldn't be holding your baby that way...give him here, let me show you the proper way...gimme gimme." if you had an ovary, i would punch you in it. 
6 months after we meet, we get devastating news. rodney has aids. we don't know how long he's had the virus that causes aids. but, it's not just HIV. it's full blown aids. we're all he has (me and his partner). his family disowned him when he told them he was gay. and we don't know anything about this disease. we know that rock hudson died of it and that we were all shocked to find out he was gay. we know that everybody that gets it dies. and I know that the only reason people are talking about it is because it started affecting "straight" people. it doesn't take long for prejudice to rear it's ugly head...even from family members. "why are you letting him come around? you'll get sick, too, you know?". actually, unless maybe he zombie bites me or full on sexually attacks me, i won't. "i wouldn't eat that! *whispers* rodney cooked it". so? he used tomato sauce, not O+ sauce. weirdo. "you SHOULD NOT be letting him hold your baby!!". why? he loves the baby, he won't drop him or anything. "he might kiss him!". OMG!!! i am so over it!!
FLASH FORWARD 1989
i move to texas. i'm not happy. i want to be there for rodney. he calls me everyday (2p eastern/1p central)...we watch "another world" and talk about our day. the calls stop coming. rodney is in the hospital. his parents finally came around. they are with him day and night.  he passes, peacefully, in his sleep.
FLASH FORWARD today
we all are far more educated than we were in 1986. we all know how the virus is passed and how to protect ourselves. there isn't exactly a cure, but people are surviving. magic johnson was diagnosed in 1991 and is still alive and well. the numbers are still not good: 50,000 people contract HIV (the virus that causes aids), in the us, each year. approximately 17,000 people in the us die, each year, due to an aids related illness. and i have noticed, that in the 26 years since rodney's diagnosis (and the 23 years since his death), people have stopped talking about the disease. you hear about it once a year, on world aids day, and then people forget again. i, for one, will never forget. i will never forget that fragile man that was both my best friend and worst enemy.

^rodney was always behind the camera, and he shoulda been more^ 

worried about my hair than my eyeshadow!

                     

ps rodney...i finally listened to you about that hideous eyeshadow ;)