Tonight at the grocery store my 7-year old stated definitively that this was the last day of November as she stared at the billboard size calendar in our local Whole Foods. I jumped on this open door for a teaching moment and asked her if she knew what tomorrow was…to which she replied with some apprehension, “Tuesday?” This child never makes it easy for me to talk AIDS with her, but I persevered nonetheless. “Yes, it’s Tuesday. It’s also December 1 st, which is World AIDS Day.” After some lengthy discussion about what that meant and some surface discussion about how people might observe the...
DawnAveritt's blog
So this is my first blog…ever. I’ve been HIV+ for more than 21 years now and an advocate for women with HIV for 16…but I’ve never been a blogger. Actually, I’m a mom, a wife, a daughter and a sister too. Some days I’m a hiker or a volunteer – other days I’m a carpool driver and a soccer Mom. But everyday, I live with HIV. When I was diagnosed in 1988, I didn’t know another woman in the world with HIV. I was 19 years old. Now, I’m 40 and the mother of two wonderful little girls – and both of these things seemed impossible (or at least unlikely) for a girl like me – a girl with HIV. We decided...