25th Anniversary of AIDS epi: Remember the Women

A letter sent to BAR from Marcy Fraser, RN, MBA:'As we all commemorate the 25th 'anniversary' of the Aids epidemic, I pause to remember the early years of that horrible time in San Francisco. I worked for five years on the Aids Ward at SF General Hospital starting in 1982. As a new nurse, I was excited, scared, and challengedon many levels. We had no treatments back then, and our predominantly young and gay male patients died difficult and painful deaths. It felt like war, and it felt like we were losing.In the 1980s many in our community worked a day job and at night we cared for sick and dying friends at home. Funerals came often, and whole worlds of friends disappeared from our lives. I recall when the health department announced the 10,000th death from Aids. The city seemed empty, depressed, and hope was scarce.In the 1990s, I served on the Ryan White CARE Council - the city was flush with new money and we were building a response to a changing epidemic. We had people to care for and politics to respond to. We had more to learn than we could have imagined.IOt has been difficult to talk about it, to remember it, yet for my generation of LGBT people it was an experience that changed us forever. I developed a deep bond with the people I worked with in those days. It is unique in my relationships and it is precious to me. I look at photographs of dead friends and they looklike children to me now. We wondered how we would survive such losses, but there was work for us to do.Finally, your front page article failed to mention or to interview even one woman ['25 years into Aids epidemic, SF examines its system of care' June 1]. A legion of women nurses, doctors, social workers, and volunteers served in agencies, clinics hospitals and on boards and they are a part of the history of the epidemic. Their contributions must be included. . Therefore, I list some names here of women who were and are leaders, caregivers, and mentors: PAT CHRISTEN, ALISON MOED, CONNIE WOFSY, VAL ROBB, DIANE JONES, ROMA GUY, ALISON LAVOY, RUTH BRINKER, SANDRA HERNANDEZ, JEANNEE PARKER MARTIN, ANNE HUGHES, CATHERINE LYONS, and many more.