Listen & Live

"When they tell you their stories, listen. They need to be heard. It is why you are here. You don't belong with us. You are living."

I has been in isolation for some time having been lucky enough to contract an illness that saw me dancing with death. I hadn't understood what Pete had said at the time...

My ward~mates where completing life, they would not leave our ward without flowers & a eulogy. Each night, in turns, they would come to my door & share their stories. I could not see them, & I wondered what they looked like, but it was not important. They needed to tell their stories. How they had contracted a virus, why they we're dying, who they would miss or if they would walk this path alone. There was anger, sadness, laughter, pain...then there was acceptance...relief...peace. I remember it as if it we're this morning on the train....I remember that within 3 months of my full recovery, they we're all gone.

"Hey doc, am I really getting out?"
"Yep, you're in the clear, you'll be home for Christmas".
"Can I ask you a question doc ...about Peter. It's just, I haven't heard from him the last few nights & was wondering how he was doing?"
"What did he say last time you spoke?"
"He said that when they tell their stories, I should listen. That they needed to be heard. He said it was why I was here, & that I didn't belong here because I was living".
"He doesn't usually speak....did you follow his advice?"
"Yeah, but that doesn't answer my question"
"Peter died."
"Oh"....
"He died 3 years ago".
"Oh....good drugs you have here doc".

We live in a world where we are easily distracted by shiny things. You may think the drugs we're too strong, but the point was right. Stop. Listen to the stories of the world. It is why we are here. Because we are part of the living.

The World AIDS Convention continues. This is not elegant writing, (for which I apologise), but it is a memory that is hard to recollect. Melbourne 2014...there is hope.