For those who lived through the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Seattle, the coronavirus pandemic brings echoes of past trauma – By Crystal Paul (Seattle Times) / April 26 2020
When Charles Perry was diagnosed with HIV in 1988, his diagnosis was considered a death sentence. At the peak of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, funerals for victims of HIV were held nearly every week in the Seattle area.
Perry sat down last year with Rosette Royale, the story-gathering coordinator for The AMP: AIDS Memorial Pathway, to tell his story, and the two became friends.
Last month, Royale was heartbroken to learn that Perry had died of COVID-19 days after contracting the coronavirus. He had lived with HIV for three decades. He was 66 years old.
“What’s happening now it seems in a way so abstract,” said Royale. “When you see The Seattle Times’ list of how many people died … they’re just numbers, but then to find out that someone I knew was one of the numbers really shook me.”
Charles Perry was 66 when he died in March from COVID-19. Last year, he spoke with Rosette Royale, story-gathering coordinator for The AMP: AIDS Memorial Pathway, about living through the AIDS crisis in Seattle. (Courtesy of The AMP:… More
Like Perry, many long-term survivors of HIV and AIDS never expected to live this long. Some have been wracked with survivor’s guilt for decades. Many who are not HIV-positive themselves but lived through the height of the AIDS crisis have had the trauma of watching many friends and loved ones die.
Now, they find themselves in the middle of another worldwide public health crisis, once again watching helplessly as death tolls rise.
Continue to article: https://www.seattletimes.com/life/for-those-who-lived-through-the-hiv-aids-epidemic-in-seattle-the-coronavirus-pandemic-brings-echoes-of-past-trauma/
