Holding his hand.

By that point we had e-mailed back and forth for a few weeks. I felt I knew this blogger somewhat. He talked of being tired and in chronic pain.

Not wanting to pry too much, I suggested he must be going through something other than being anemic and suffering an old sports injury.

When I read his response my heart dropped and I became teary-eyed.

"I've been HIV+ for 18 years," he wrote, "And I have AIDS."

That wasn't the answer I expected.

He told me most of his friends had died of the virus and that he thinks about dying. He talked about needing Procrit shots and blood transfusions.

That made me think of my uncle, who needed to get a Procrit shot every week along with the occasional blood transfusion while he battled colon cancer and chronic leukemia.

But I was there holding my uncle's hand for EVERY shot when it would sting and burn into his skin, squeezing his fingers as the tears ran down his face.

And I wondered if this blogger had anyone there to hold his hand during the various shots or had someone to accompany him to the numerous doctor's visits.

So to show my support I wanted to send him something. A piece of Mail Art as my way of holding his hand.

This is what I'm mailing out to him:

"Blood Orchid"

Markers and ink on standard mailing envelope - 5" x 7" (NFS)

It's a close-up illustration of an orchid drenched in blood. It seemed appropriate and beautiful and tragic.

The backside!

On the back of the envelope I wrote down words of significance which circle around a silver star:

Love. Compassion. Special. Hope. Survivor. Struggle. Tears. Life. Pain. Fear. Support. Future. Try. Strength. Live. Endure. Courage. Cry. Hard. Believe. Emotional. Trust. Dream. Free.

It must be a hard life for him. Hopefully this will remind him that he's not alone.....

(((HUGS)))