Remembering David

<v Doreen Sharpton>David was a beautiful baby, he was gorgeous when he was born, I had <v Doreen Sharpton>more compliments on him and he grew up into a handsome boy. <v Man>I've-I've never seen anybody quite like that. <v Man>I've never seen an intensity or energy level or conviction <v Man>quite like that, and that was really something to behold. <v Woman>I think he was the pioneer. <v Woman>He was so fiery and so adamant that this message needed to be <v Woman>brought to the public attention. <v Woman>And then when he stopped doing it, it just kind of-has <v Woman>settled in the background. <v Doreen Sharpton>It's hard because it's just a mother's love, you know, I guess <v Doreen Sharpton>when you carry that baby for nine months inside you, you got that special bond, you know? <v Doreen Sharpton>And that's what I think that when that certain part goes and when

<v Doreen Sharpton>a certain person dies, that's part of you gone too. <v David Sharpton>As a tool of compassion-[Conversation becomes indistinct] <v Narrator>The many faces of a man who fought an uncommon battle in an unlikely setting, <v Narrator>a life that raised as many questions as it answered. <v Narrator>A man who in the same life could be heroically and tragically symbolic <v Narrator>of a disease that was unknown when he was born. <v Narrator>For 3 and a half years, we walked with David Sharpton seeking answers to the questions <v Narrator>he left in his wake. <v Narrator>3 and a half years as seen through the eyes of the men and women who worked with him, <v Narrator>fought him and knew him, and also was seen through the eyes of David, <v Narrator>a man fighting for his life against AIDS. <v Narrator>David Sharpton was first diagnosed with AIDS in Dallas, Texas in 1985.

<v Narrator>Relatively early in the global epidemic and decidedly early in his life, <v Narrator>he was 25 and certain he would die. <v David Sharpton>Well, my first emotional reaction was, "Oh my God, I'm going to die.", <v David Sharpton>And I really felt like I was going to be dead within the year. <v David Sharpton>That there was no hope, that I-I had AIDS and that I was just going to go downhill <v David Sharpton>from that point on the people who had AIDS just don't live with this disease, <v David Sharpton>that they die, it's terminal. <v David Sharpton>And um so I told my family I had a terminal illness <v David Sharpton>and I was dying. <v Narrator>As the shock of the diagnosis slowly wore off and the steady flow of infection <v Narrator>fighting pills became commonplace. <v Narrator>A transformation started to take place in David Sharpton. <v David Sharpton>My life is definitely going to get cut off short, so I got <v David Sharpton>the short end of the stick. <v David Sharpton>But at the same time, I have chosen

<v David Sharpton>that, that life, whether it's 2 years or 5 years <v David Sharpton>or 6 months, it's going to be quality that I will <v David Sharpton>work to help people, that I will work <v David Sharpton>to help educate, that I will work to help <v David Sharpton>those who are dying. <v David Sharpton>And it's it's not necessarily <v David Sharpton>so much the fact that life holds a ball, that <v David Sharpton>life is a bowl full of cherries, because it's not. <v David Sharpton>Life has a lot of struggles we have to go through, and a lot of mountains we have to <v David Sharpton>climb and AIDS is just one of the hills leading to the mountain. <v David Sharpton>In many ways, AIDS is a mountain for some people, but I have made a decision <v David Sharpton>that it's just going to be a hill in my life. <v Narrator>David Sharpton selected what many viewed as an unlikely spot to climb his <v Narrator>personal hill against AIDS.

<v Narrator>When he arrived in Salt Lake City late in 1987, Utah was a low prevalence <v Narrator>site for the AIDS epidemic. <v Narrator>Only a few dozen cases had been diagnosed, and AIDS was still considered a low <v Narrator>priority public health issue. <v Narrator>The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or the Mormon Church is headquartered <v Narrator>here, and the LDS Church had excommunicated David Sharpton in a conflict <v Narrator>over his homosexuality. <v David Sharpton>Well, basically, the reason I moved to Salt Lake City was because I <v David Sharpton>am from a LDS background, and I felt a real <v David Sharpton>need for this area of the country to be educated <v David Sharpton>on living with AIDS, to see people visibly <v David Sharpton>speaking out who have AIDS. <v David Sharpton>I no longer felt I could just sit back and do nothing. <v David Sharpton>That I could sit back and see what was going <v David Sharpton>on around us in our community with AIDS. <v David Sharpton>The big denial that was there, the big fear that was there

<v David Sharpton>that people were going through around this issue. <v David Sharpton>You see tragic circumstances, people committing suicide <v David Sharpton>because they're HIV positive and don't have the support system. <v David Sharpton>People who are refused housing because they're HIV positive, <v David Sharpton>people who are refused medical services in this state because they <v David Sharpton>are HIV positive. The importance of emotional and social support <v David Sharpton>outweighs anything with the disease AIDS. <v Narrator>It's now January of 1989. <v Narrator>In the past two years, Utah's handful of AIDS cases has grown to 180. <v Narrator>David Sharpton is the executive director of the People with AIDS Coalition of Utah. <v Narrator>He's a co-founder. Never much more than a telephone and a desk, the <v Narrator>coalition begins to serve as a magnet for a dramatically increasing number of people <v Narrator>with AIDS or the AIDS causing virus.

<v Narrator>In the center of it all is David Sharpton. <v David Sharpton>What's on your agenda for today? <v Norma Hird>I mean, that place was bustling. Here is David on the phone talking to somebody. <v Norma Hird>Yelling at somebody else, getting tickets out the door and handing it to me. <v Norma Hird>Taking my $20 bill as a contribution to the People with AIDS Coalition <v Norma Hird>and thanking me. And-and I'm-I'm-I'm thinking <v Norma Hird>is this, you know, this guy's got AIDS and he's doing all this. <v Norma Hird>You never felt like anybody was in there was sick. <v Norma Hird>I mean, David, just has it buzzing all the time. <v Woman>Yes. <v David Sharpton>We've been there for her and this other person is saying, tell your family, tell your <v David Sharpton>family. What most people don't realize is that the issues in Utah are such that you can't <v David Sharpton>always tell your family because of the-the stigma and the rejection <v David Sharpton>that is attached to it, that AIDS diagnosis. <v David Sharpton>AIDS is my life, AIDS is my career, <v David Sharpton>and I will go to my grave

<v David Sharpton>teaching and fighting AIDS. <v Narrator>In many respects, David Sharpton was the first person with AIDS to speak out in Utah. <v Narrator>He broke through an invisible wall of silence, and as that wall fell, <v Narrator>Utah started to take notice. <v Narrator>One of the first to take notice was Lucy Schoell, an infectious disease nurse <v Narrator>now with the Veterans Administration Medical Center. <v Narrator>Schoell was trying to find a person with the AIDS causing HIV disease to educate <v Narrator>the public. <v Lucy Schoell>So I asked David if he would do this, and he was more than willing. <v Lucy Schoell>And it was kind of a scary thing to do because there was no one else at that point and <v Lucy Schoell>time in the state of Utah who had HIV disease, who would go out and speak <v Lucy Schoell>publicly. <v Lucy Schoell>So really, he was a pioneer in the state and he was really a godsend <v Lucy Schoell>to the state of Utah to get this movement underway, to help people <v Lucy Schoell>see someone who has this disease so that they can address their own issues

<v Lucy Schoell>and learn how to accept their loved ones and family members who have this <v Lucy Schoell>disease. <v Narrator>Eventually, Sharpton would join a circuit riding AIDS education program that crisscrossed <v Narrator>the state, working with rural care providers who were increasingly involved with AIDS. <v Lucy Schoell>After every one of those programs, those people in the rural parts of Utah <v Lucy Schoell>who are really afraid of the disease and are really homophobic would come up to him <v Lucy Schoell>and just throw their arms around him and let him <v Lucy Schoell>know how grateful they were that he had come, been willing to openly <v Lucy Schoell>speak, share his experiences with them so that they <v Lucy Schoell>could better understand how they could take care of patients who have this disease. <v David Sharpton>I get very nervous when I go into rural Utah [small chuckle] because <v David Sharpton>of the fears and the phobias. I have fears of getting lynched as <v David Sharpton>being a homosexual with AIDS in these small communities are fears <v David Sharpton>of people who really, really don't want to change their mind.

<v David Sharpton>I guess that's my biggest fear is that I go out there and I want to address <v David Sharpton>the needs of people with AIDS, but yet I want to make sure <v David Sharpton>that I don't offend the people I'm addressing, and with this <v David Sharpton>issue, that's very hard to do. <v Narrator>By the spring of 1989, David was thrust quite willingly to center stage <v Narrator>as Utah, rural areas, and the nation's heartland joined the rest of the nation <v Narrator>in facing a future with AIDS. <v David Sharpton>I think that society has not yet began to really delve into <v David Sharpton>the future of AIDS, to really look into the telescope <v David Sharpton>and see what a huge situation they're dealing with,

<v David Sharpton>that AIDS isn't going away in the next 5 to 10 years, that AIDS <v David Sharpton>most likely will be with us permanently. <v David Sharpton>So we've got to pull our heads out of the sand. <v David Sharpton>We've got to start educating each other. <v David Sharpton>It's-[Conversation becomes indistinct]. <v Donald Steward>The first time I met David, he was speaking at the Salt Palace and <v Donald Steward>he was just on a tear. <v Donald Steward>He was-he was just really animated and just had such passion and conviction, and <v Donald Steward>he was really intense. <v Donald Steward>And I was quite amazed because you just don't see that sort of level of intensity. <v Louise Eutropius>At his best, he was very articulate. <v Louise Eutropius>He had a very well-formed opinions, he was very <v Louise Eutropius>good at communicating with the audience and getting the audience to sort of walk in his <v Louise Eutropius>shoes. <v Dr. Kristen Ries>He didn't pussyfoot around, he just told them like it was. <v Dr. Kristen Ries>And that was very hard for some people here. <v Dr. Kristen Ries>That's what everybody needed to hear, and so he really did a great service to Utah.

<v Lucy Schoell>And he made this very serious illness, something that people could <v Lucy Schoell>look at as being truly serious. <v Lucy Schoell>But yet. <v Lucy Schoell>He helped them to see the light side of it. <v Lucy Schoell>And one of the very most important things he did was to put a face on the <v Lucy Schoell>on the disease. <v Louise Eutropius>As David used to say, I am a ?inaudible?, I think. <v Louise Eutropius>You know, he was the most visible person he-if <v Louise Eutropius>there was a camera there you know, David made the appearance. <v Lee Weaver>You know when someone is dying of cancer like-[Weaver's lecture becomes indistinct]. <v Narrator>David made many of his appearances on university campuses and frequently talked <v Narrator>to University of Utah classes taught by Lee Weaver. <v Narrator>The topic was death and dying, often an abstract notion for a classroom <v Narrator>of 20 year olds. <v Lee Weaver>Almost every student, every course, every quarter has written <v Lee Weaver>a reaction paper on David, and they talk about the impact

<v Lee Weaver>he made on their lives over and over. <v Lee Weaver>I'd hear people say I kind of wanted to stay away from these people with AIDS. <v Lee Weaver>I kind of didn't want to face the issue. <v Lee Weaver>I mean, it's not my situation. <v Lee Weaver>So why should I bother with it? <v Lee Weaver>But somehow, after David talked, I don't think I'll ever forget him. <v Lee Weaver>I think I'll remember the humanity of the young people who are dying <v Lee Weaver>of AIDS. <v Narrator>But the gloves could come off when Sharpton would take on state government over its <v Narrator>response to AIDS, refusing to compromise and often threatening to enlist <v Narrator>an increasingly attentive press corps in his battles. <v Narrator>Sharpton negotiated simply digging in until the other side wore <v Narrator>down. <v Francine Giani>After about 45 minutes of-of screaming, <v Francine Giani>yelling, and it was for me too. <v Francine Giani>And it was-it was Dave and I just kind of going at it, and I was trying to

<v Francine Giani>have him see my side of you know the view. <v Francine Giani>He was trying to have me see his, and back and forth. <v Francine Giani>By the end of that conversation, you know, we were doing an AIDS awareness week <v Francine Giani>for David Sharpton. <v David Sharpton>Because it's obvious these people feel that once you're a person with AIDS, then you <v David Sharpton>become just a statistic and then you no <v David Sharpton>longer have any rights, and that's just not true. <v Donald Steward>We had so many projects going on and there was just <v Donald Steward>this real sort of Joan of Arc kind of conviction <v Donald Steward>that we were doing the right thing against incredible odds. <v Donald Steward>And this is where we needed to be, and we had certain skills, and these skills were going <v Donald Steward>to be perfect in this situation. <v Donald Steward>And David was right there at the helm and he was very <v Donald Steward>healthy, and getting back to that passion and animation, he was <v Donald Steward>just really in his prime. <v Donald Steward>And things were going very, very well. <v Donald Steward>Even though community wise, a lot of people weren't listening to the AIDS message.

<v Donald Steward>We felt as if we were making a lot of progress. <v Narrator>The sense of progress received a dramatic boost in the spring of 1989 with <v Narrator>the arrival of the NAMES Project Quilt in Salt Lake City. <v Narrator>The quilt is a symbolic reminder of those who have died from AIDS. <v Narrator>With the growth of the death toll, the quilt no longer travels. <v Narrator>No arena can accommodate its full size. <v Narrator>But in 1989, it toured the nation and for three days drew steady <v Narrator>crowds to a Salt Lake City convention center. <v Narrator>And in the hour before it opened, it also attracted a frightened family. <v Narrator>Carolyn Spriggs was with her adopted 3 year old son, Tyler. <v Narrator>Tyler was born with the AIDS virus, driven by love, confused <v Narrator>by issues of life and death. <v Narrator>They came to the quilt looking for direction and found David Sharpton. <v Carolyn Spriggs>And I met David in the middle of the quilt, came up and introduced himself to me,

<v Carolyn Spriggs>a very loving, caring person. <v Carolyn Spriggs>At his best, he gave them the words of encouragement to <v Carolyn Spriggs>fight for what they wanted, and the kind of life they wanted to have. <v Carolyn Spriggs>What-for how long? Ever long that life was. <v Carolyn Spriggs>And that was the thing that most impressed <v Carolyn Spriggs>me. That he had the same thing, but he gave people the words and encouragement <v Carolyn Spriggs>to fight. He helped people fight. <v Speaker>?Jeffie? Plum-[Words become indistinct] <v Narrator> Sharpton would enlist Carolyn and Tyler Spriggs in the battle for public <v Narrator>awareness, convincing them that it was their battle as well. <v Narrator>With his adopted mom, Tyler would carry the message of understanding to the elementary <v Narrator>schools of Utah. <v David Sharpton>Robert ?inaudible?. <v Narrator>Despite his diagnosis, the Spring and Summer of 1989 were the best of times <v Narrator>for David Sharpton. His days were filled with friction and function in his campaign <v Narrator>for AIDS awareness, and even when complications forced him briefly into the hospital,

<v Narrator>he showed few signs of slowing down. <v Norma Hird>I mean, this kid was on the phone constantly doing things, taking care of things. <v Norma Hird>If he saw a patient that needed some help and heard about it, he was on the phone <v Norma Hird>taking care of it, whether it was hospitalization or Social Security or Medicaid or <v Norma Hird>housing or something else. He never slow down when he was in the hospital. <v David Sharpton>The press would like to come across with this vision that everyone <v David Sharpton>who has AIDS is emaciated, and that's not necessarily true. <v David Sharpton>Obviously, I'm not emaciated. <v David Sharpton>I-those people are in their last stages of this disease. <v David Sharpton>I may get to that point one day, but at this point I am a person <v David Sharpton>who is living with the disease. <v David Sharpton>A person who is very much <v David Sharpton>an optimist and will not give in to that social pressure.

<v Kristen Ries>I don't have the scientific proof, but I know it so; that somebody like David, who <v Kristen Ries>has a goal, and something he's striving for, patients do better, there's just <v Kristen Ries>no question. Those that come and say, I have AIDS, I'm going to die, and <v Kristen Ries>they don't want to have any goals or anything, they do die quicker, there's no question. <v Kristen Ries>David, his whole activism is what he kept him going. <v Lucy Schoell>A lot of it-I mean, there were people in the state of Utah who even questioned that he <v Lucy Schoell>was infected because he was so healthy and so strong. <v Interviewer>Did you have that feeling? <v Louise Eutropius>Yes, it's true. I mean, David was-David was going to be the person who beat this thing. <v Louise Eutropius>He was-he was very convinced about that, I think he convinced a lot of us that this <v Louise Eutropius>disease was not going to get him, and could get other people, but it wasn't going to get <v Louise Eutropius>David Sharpton. <v Ken Verdoia>But the optimism of 1989 soon gave way to the realities of 1990. <v Ken Verdoia>If Utah was now more aware of the impact of AIDS, there was also the realization <v Ken Verdoia>that society faced a very long and painful struggle against the disease.

<v Ken Verdoia>Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City saw a dramatic growth in the number of AIDS related <v Ken Verdoia>admissions over the course of the year. <v Ken Verdoia>And if David Sharpton appeared invincible in 1989, 1990 <v Ken Verdoia>would prove otherwise. And the year would end with David, a virtual outcast <v Ken Verdoia>from the very movement he had championed. <v Donald Steward>And there was so much political pressure, the funding for AIDS services was starting to <v Donald Steward>dry up. The novelty of the illness was starting to dry <v Donald Steward>up. We were kind of in for the long haul and people <v Donald Steward>had to be very serious and commit, and a lot of the people that originally came in with <v Donald Steward>a real gusto were just very drained and tired. <v Donald Steward>And in Utah, we never thought we would see 100 or 200 <v Donald Steward>people with full blown AIDS, now we're over 600. <v Donald Steward>We thought it would be cured by now, I think a lot of people optimistically thought that, <v Donald Steward>and when it didn't things got very ugly and a lot of pressure was placed

<v Donald Steward>on various people. And with David being so visible, he was an obvious target. <v Louise Eutropius>We talked about the momentum and I think he sort of realized that the momentum was <v Louise Eutropius>slipping. Any-I sense he started become very frustrated, <v Louise Eutropius>and as the more frustrated he became, the more sort of radical <v Louise Eutropius>he started becoming. Started acting out, in my mind, <v Louise Eutropius>making some inappropriate statements and so forth, and we had some real concerns about <v Louise Eutropius>whether or not he was actually at that point starting to alienate some people. <v Carolyn Spriggs>I saw David get angry and hurt and defiant, <v Carolyn Spriggs>and I knew part of that was the disease that was going on with him. <v Carolyn Spriggs>I saw him do things that um he wasn't proud of, <v Carolyn Spriggs>let alone, you know. And yet the mother instinct me wanted to protect him <v Carolyn Spriggs>because I knew that part of his anger, a part of it-all of it had to do with <v Carolyn Spriggs>a lifestyle and a disease that was destroying his body and that he was

<v Carolyn Spriggs>fighting against, and he didn't want it to destroy him. <v Lucy Schoell>He always did say, I have a right to this anger. <v Lucy Schoell>And that anger was not something that most people close to him could <v Lucy Schoell>bear for a sustained period. <v Lucy Schoell>You know, you kind of had to go in and out of his life when he got to that point because <v Lucy Schoell>you just-no one could tolerate it for a long period <v Lucy Schoell>of time. <v Ken Verdoia>In the fall of 1989, Eugene Gudaitis was working as a volunteer in the People <v Ken Verdoia>with AIDS Coalition Office in Salt Lake City. <v Ken Verdoia>The soft spoken guditus was waging his own battle against AIDS, a battle that <v Ken Verdoia>continues to this day. <v Ken Verdoia>Well aware of how an AIDS diagnosis can change a person's world, guditus was <v Ken Verdoia>working with David Sharpton on a daily basis. <v Ken Verdoia>He watched the changes taking place and then one pivotal day was <v Ken Verdoia>thrown into a wall by David during an argument.

<v Eugene Gudaitis>You know, he didn't mean it in a you know like, he was going to kill me physically, you <v Eugene Gudaitis>know, I don't- I don't really think that at all. <v Eugene Gudaitis>But when something like that happens, you start to sit back. <v Eugene Gudaitis>And I became afraid of him from that moment, you know it was <v Eugene Gudaitis>like, you know, if he was coming up to the office, I left because, you <v Eugene Gudaitis>know, it was scary. You know, I didn't know when that would happen again. <v Ken Verdoia>It was one in a string of incidents that even allies found difficult to ignore. <v Donald Steward>And I think one of the most unfortunate parts about it was David had a very important <v Donald Steward>message, but the credibility of the package that it was wrapped up in was really <v Donald Steward>compromised. So even though he was saying something vital, <v Donald Steward>he could be dismissed as being fanatic or too angry or <v Donald Steward>having psychological issues or-or dementia was a word that was bandied about <v Donald Steward>a lot, which was a little bit out of context, but the theme of it was-was

<v Donald Steward>true. <v Donald Steward>His credibility was very, very compromised. <v Carolyn Spriggs>He was alienating people by things that he was saying, closing more doors <v Carolyn Spriggs>than he was opening, and we didn't want that for him. <v Carolyn Spriggs>We didn't want him to destroy what he had created, and that was hard. <v Ken Verdoia>The board of directors of the People with AIDS Coalition, a board hand-picked by David <v Ken Verdoia>Sharpton, was on the horns of a dilemma. <v Ken Verdoia>Knowing what they knew, professing compassion for people battling AIDS, <v Ken Verdoia>could they-should they fire the founder? <v Carolyn Spriggs>There is such a um division of emotions there, knowing <v Carolyn Spriggs>that if we wanted to keep the coalition- coalition alive, <v Carolyn Spriggs>David had to step down, but if we wanted to keep David alive. <v Carolyn Spriggs>So where do you draw the line? You know, we had to think of the masses of people <v Carolyn Spriggs>instead of the one person. <v Louise Eutropius>I mean, it was extremely difficult for me. <v Louise Eutropius>I was a wreck over it, and it really-I mean, David

<v Louise Eutropius>and I went the rounds, no doubt about it. You know, we spent hours on the telephone <v Louise Eutropius>going over the situation, how it could be rectified. <v Louise Eutropius>Yelling, screaming, crying um it was hard. <v Donald Steward>And so he-he was basically stripped of his position, and <v Donald Steward>I think the really tragic part about that was David was the People <v Donald Steward>with AIDS Coalition. That was his baby, and that was part of his credibility. <v Donald Steward>It wasn't David Sharpton, it was David Sharpton, executive director of the People with <v Donald Steward>AIDS Coalition. They were synonymous. <v Donald Steward>You couldn't separate one from the other, and when he lost that, I think he lost <v Donald Steward>a huge chunk of his identity, which was pretty tragic. <v Ken Verdoia>By the time David appears in this 1990 AIDS education video, he <v Ken Verdoia>is out as executive director of the People with AIDS Coalition of Utah. <v Ken Verdoia>The explanation is an extended medical leave of absence.

<v Ken Verdoia>Many observers mark this time as the beginning of the end for David Sharpton. <v David Sharpton>As I've said before, all people who have AIDS will be and must <v David Sharpton>be heard. Their voices will no longer be silenced. <v Eugene Gudaitis>I mean, he felt like, you know, well this is it, you know, I've got-what am I going <v Eugene Gudaitis>to do now? You know, he didn't-he didn't know what else <v Eugene Gudaitis>to do. You know, AIDS was his life. <v Louise Eutropius>I think it was extremely difficult, and unfortunately, <v Louise Eutropius>you know, right or wrong, it happened. <v Louise Eutropius>And I always wonder if that in part wasn't the start of sort of the downward <v Louise Eutropius>spiral. <v Donald Steward>It was a pitiful process. It really was. <v Donald Steward>I-I think his identity and his health were really synonymous with his position <v Donald Steward>and his achievements. <v Donald Steward>David did a great many things, and with that decline,

<v Donald Steward>incredibility that decline in position, his health just tumbled. <v Carolyn Spriggs>I never saw him smile again, I can be honest about that. <v Carolyn Spriggs>And I, you know, stayed on a lot of the boards and stuff that he was on <v Carolyn Spriggs>and that he just went down to where he wasn't on anything, didn't really <v Carolyn Spriggs>have a purpose. <v David Sharpton>And it's concerning her absurd statement in the newspaper about people with AIDS, <v David Sharpton>the innocent and guilty issues. <v David Sharpton>I'm the founder of the People with AIDS Coalition. <v Ken Verdoia>By the spring of 1991, David Sharpton is firing fewer shots at the public <v Ken Verdoia>response to AIDS. He has just passed his 6th anniversary with the disease <v Ken Verdoia>[David talking to the newspaper in the background] In the two years from 1989 to 1991, <v Ken Verdoia>the number of AIDS cases in Utah has grown from 180 to <v Ken Verdoia>roughly 400. <v Ken Verdoia>One year has past since he was excused from his high profile role in Utah's

<v Ken Verdoia>AIDS awareness campaign, but the wound is still open. <v David Sharpton>I have suffered very deeply since, ironically, since I left the organization <v David Sharpton>and the emotional attachment I've gotten ?inaudible? <v David Sharpton>basically. That-that's what's happened, and-and <v David Sharpton>I cannot help but say that's because I'm not as involved as I've been. <v David Sharpton>I've given up in many ways and I've let go. <v Interviewer>Let go of what? <v David Sharpton>I've-I've let go of-of my life basically <v David Sharpton>to-to begin the journey that we call death. <v David Sharpton>But the bottom line is that people have got to come into the picture <v David Sharpton>that can make a difference. It cannot be the David Sharpton AIDS show in the state <v David Sharpton>of Utah. It's that simple, and it was-it was very <v David Sharpton>difficult. I went through mourning over losing my organization,

<v David Sharpton>and I realized that it was a lot of the anger that AIDS had caused. <v David Sharpton>I'm the first one to admit that, that there was a lot of anger with me at that point in <v David Sharpton>my life, and I really needed to break away and to get out <v David Sharpton>of it. AIDS has been put on the backburner, it's not a-it's not a social issue anymore. <v David Sharpton>It's-there's so many cases of the disease you'd think it would be, but <v David Sharpton>because of that, everyone thinks, oh, AIDS is an issue. <v David Sharpton>We don't really it's-it's there. <v David Sharpton>We know it's there, and we have to deal with it, but we don't have to support it, <v David Sharpton>and that's tragic, it's real tragic. <v Ken Verdoia>In the Spring of 1991, David Sharpton's focus is now on keeping himself <v Ken Verdoia>alive. Like many people with AIDS, his life is tied to his medication <v Ken Verdoia>cycles. He's reached the point where an intravenous tube is permanently fixed <v Ken Verdoia>in his arm to accommodate the multiple daily injections that fight infection, <v Ken Verdoia>boosting an immune system that has virtually ceased to exist.

<v Interviewer>Do you feel that you're a walking, talking medical experiment? <v David Sharpton>[David chuckles] Very much so. I mean, the majority of the drugs that I'm on have been <v David Sharpton>experimental, and it's-you just become a walking guinea <v David Sharpton>pig, basically. <v David Sharpton>And it's very it's extremely tough on you emotionally <v David Sharpton>knowing that everything you're on has not really been-been <v David Sharpton>approved, and so you don't know what it's going to do. <v David Sharpton>And, you know, I'm not an atheist by any means, but I'm beginning to challenge <v David Sharpton>God on a lot of issues. It's like, why is this happening to me? <v David Sharpton>A lot of it is bartering, it's like I've given, and I've given , and I've given, and I've <v David Sharpton>given, and all of a sudden I'm getting sick. <v David Sharpton>Why? You know, and so I do challenge <v David Sharpton>that and I do challenge God and say, why are you doing this? <v Ken Verdoia>[Indistinct conversation] David's public appearances are dwindling.

<v Ken Verdoia>In this educational teleconference staged at the University of Utah. <v Ken Verdoia>He was not a scheduled participant, but is called out of the audience by author <v Ken Verdoia>Elisabeth Kübler-Ross to share his views on AIDS and <v Ken Verdoia>on life and death. <v Ken Verdoia>People remembering the aggressive AIDS activist of 1989 are stunned <v Ken Verdoia>by the vision of David Sharpton in 1991. <v Louise Eutropius>He lost a lot of weight, um he looked older. <v Louise Eutropius>He looked-he didn't have the same fire in him <v Louise Eutropius>that he did. <v Lucy Schoell>His vitality seemed to leave and he would-he reached a point where <v Lucy Schoell>survival for him was a day to day thing. <v Lucy Schoell>You know, he had to conserve his energy for the things he needed to do for him, <v Lucy Schoell>and he didn't have the energy to go out and do public speaking or-or <v Lucy Schoell>help run any organization he knows. <v Lucy Schoell>He was just trying to survive physically and emotionally.

<v David Sharpton>This is a real serious thing that's happening, and you begin to <v David Sharpton>make the long distance phone calls and get your $500 phone bills just from <v David Sharpton>take-giving a release to people and telling them goodbye, <v David Sharpton>and that's been real difficult, but it's something I want to deal with. <v David Sharpton>I want to have total when I'm gone. <v David Sharpton>I want to make sure that people understand where I'm at with this disease <v David Sharpton>and where I was at, and hopefully remember me for who I am, and what I am. <v David Sharpton>And, you know, that I'm just a person. <v David Sharpton>I've got a lot of willpower and a lot of push. <v David Sharpton>But the bottom line is there's a virus that is killing me, <v David Sharpton>and there's no doubt in my mind. <v David Sharpton>The average cost of one person's diagnosis is $200,000 dollars for ?inaudible? you know-[Speech becomes indistinct]. <v Ken Verdoia>1992 arrives, the last year of David's life and he makes his final <v Ken Verdoia>public speaking appearance in Provo, Utah.

<v Ken Verdoia>Utah now has 550 reported cases of AIDS, a 1,300% <v Ken Verdoia>increase in cases in five years, 350 have died. <v Ken Verdoia>One million Americans now carry the AIDS causing virus, a quarter <v Ken Verdoia>of a million have AIDS, 145,000 have died in <v Ken Verdoia>this nation. Globally an estimated 11 million people <v Ken Verdoia>are carrying the AIDS causing virus. <v Ken Verdoia>In January of 1992, David Sharpton is nearing the end. <v David Sharpton>I'm very wary now, I'm very tired of fighting. <v David Sharpton>I'm at a point where, like with all the ups and downs that <v David Sharpton>I've seen with the disease, I'm extremely tired of fighting. <v Ken Verdoia>In the first days of 1992, the end, which had always seemed somewhat <v Ken Verdoia>abstract to David in his early years with AIDS, started rushing towards <v Ken Verdoia>him.

<v Ken Verdoia>A relationship with a longtime companion had withered, his role as a spokesman, <v Ken Verdoia>as a leader in the AIDS awareness movement had similarly evaporated. <v Ken Verdoia>AIDS became a daily, personal, painful struggle. <v Ken Verdoia>It was time for David to seek mooring in a safe harbor. <v Ken Verdoia>Kristen Ries, who'd been David's doctor since his arrival in Salt Lake City almost five <v Ken Verdoia>years. Early in 1992, David had a final office visit, <v Ken Verdoia>unlike these scenes from 1989. <v Ken Verdoia>His health was now failing rapidly. <v Ken Verdoia>Kristen Ries tells David Sharpton, he does not have much time. <v Kristen Ries>He knew it was time to go and to go home. <v Kristen Ries>I mean, that obviously was what he was headed for. <v Ken Verdoia>Lancaster, Texas is only a few miles south of downtown Dallas, yet retains

<v Ken Verdoia>firm roots as a hard working small town in the Bible Belt. <v Ken Verdoia>In the 1970s, David's family moved into one of the residential subdivisions <v Ken Verdoia>that was rapidly dotting the countryside. <v Ken Verdoia>In February of 1992, David Sharpton came home. <v Ken Verdoia>[Indistinct conversation between David's mother and David]. <v Ken Verdoia>His mother, Doreen, was a British war bride. <v Ken Verdoia>She's proud of the lilting accent that still sets her speech apart from the soft drawl of <v Ken Verdoia>rural Texas, and Doreen Sharpton understands pain. <v Ken Verdoia>In 1978, she lost her youngest son, Duane, in a drowning accident. <v Ken Verdoia>Her husband died from cancer nine months later. <v Ken Verdoia>In 1992 her son, David, has come home to die. <v Ken Verdoia>Doreen Sharpton faces her son's final days through the limitations of <v Ken Verdoia>her own muscular dystrophy. <v Doreen Sharpton>I'm doing all I can for him and I'll do it to the very end. <v Doreen Sharpton>Even if David asked to go in-in one of these places, you know at the very end

<v Doreen Sharpton>that's completely bedridden. <v Doreen Sharpton>I'll be with him everyday. <v Doreen Sharpton>I'll be with him as the Lord gives me the strength to get down there. <v Doreen Sharpton>I'll be ready everyday watching him, to see him get care. <v Doreen Sharpton>That's all I want. Nobody's gonna hurt David, nobody. <v Doreen Sharpton>As long as I'm alive. I know that. <v Doreen Sharpton>[Indistinct conversation]. <v Ken Verdoia>David's condition is rapidly deteriorating. <v Ken Verdoia>He is suffering nerve degeneration known as neuropathy. <v Ken Verdoia>He's falling a lot, he is also deteriorating mentally with dementia, <v Ken Verdoia>a symptom that can be associated with AIDS final stages. <v Ken Verdoia>It's increasingly difficult for him to concentrate and communicate. <v Interviewer>Can you feel your body change? <v Interviewer>Can you feel that the changes are going on that are not good changes? <v David Sharpton>Yeah, I do. I felt like ?I can't feel that? <v David Sharpton>because of the-the um the

<v David Sharpton>neuropathy has made it where- where <v David Sharpton>I can't walk. <v David Sharpton>So I have to use a walker and a wheelchair constantly. <v Doreen Sharpton>And uh it's so sad to see these things for David, because David <v Doreen Sharpton>was always such a proud young man, he did everything for himself. <v Doreen Sharpton>He never bothered anybody for anything, and he still is a brave young man, <v Doreen Sharpton>a courageous young man, as far as I'm concerned, because he never complains, <v Doreen Sharpton>he never, ever complains. <v Doreen Sharpton>He never asked anybody for anything, he's very quiet that <v Doreen Sharpton>he thinks a lot, I know David thinks a lot. <v Doreen Sharpton>And he wants to live so bad, he's fighting it all the way, <v Doreen Sharpton>and uh that's why he wants to walk, he's determined to walk, even though he's so weak he <v Doreen Sharpton>can't, but he'll do it to the very end.

<v Doreen Sharpton>Now these pills are very important to him, he has take these <v Doreen Sharpton>every single night. <v Ken Verdoia>Doreen and David Sharpton are two broken arms trying to lift the weight of the world. <v Ken Verdoia>By holding on to each other, they give the appearance of holding on to life. <v Doreen Sharpton>Sometimes I have a good you know, we laugh about, say, oh David, I can't lift your legs, <v Doreen Sharpton>you know. And that's what we're going to do, David. <v Doreen Sharpton>We're a pair together, David. <v Doreen Sharpton>You know, that's what I tell him. I say you're weak, I'm weak. <v Doreen Sharpton>You can't get up, I can't get up. So we'll pair together. <v Doreen Sharpton>And we kind of laugh about that. <v David Sharpton>?inaudible?. <v David Sharpton>I mean, she can't be around I think for ?me?. <v David Sharpton>But we do manage, it's a better relationship for <v David Sharpton>her than I've ever had with her. <v Doreen Sharpton>I just go on for David, for David's sake, you know, because I love him so

<v Doreen Sharpton>much, and uh I want to keep him around as long as I can. <v Doreen Sharpton>And to see my son, you know, each day <v Doreen Sharpton>going through the pain and the suffering, they have to go through you know, I can't <v Doreen Sharpton>stand seeing that because I'm a mother, and I love him. <v Doreen Sharpton>Any mother that doesn't have any feelings and can't love a son, when they're-they're ill <v Doreen Sharpton>like that, is not much of a mother as far as I'm concerned, and any mother that turns <v Doreen Sharpton>away a children like that. <v Doreen Sharpton>Well I mean, that's what a mother is for you know. <v Doreen Sharpton>[Indistinct conversations] <v Ken Verdoia>The home is a gathering place for family and friends who help Doreen and David make <v Ken Verdoia>it through the days. Doreen has been direct in letting her neighbors and acquaintances <v Ken Verdoia>know about David's homecoming. <v Ken Verdoia>A moment of truth came when she stood before a gathering of fellow English emigres. <v Doreen Sharpton>I can tell them what, and he's had it for seven years and I got up and

<v Doreen Sharpton>made a speech, I said I have some news to tell. <v Doreen Sharpton>And it's not good news. I said my other son, David, that's terminally ill <v Doreen Sharpton>and he has AIDS. <v Doreen Sharpton>I say don't care what any of you think in here, I don't care what difference it makes in <v Doreen Sharpton>anyone. I said, that is my boy, he's my son and I love him, <v Doreen Sharpton>and I'll stick by him till the very end. <v Doreen Sharpton>And by the time I got through with my speech, everyone was crying. <v Doreen Sharpton>Neil came up, Neil was hugging me. <v Ken Verdoia>But at times, the reaction has been cool to David's return to his old neighborhood. <v Ken Verdoia>Fred and Emily Storing are retired and live across the street from Doreen and David. <v Ken Verdoia>[Indistinct conversation] In the spring, they watched David fall while trying to move a <v Ken Verdoia>trashcan to the curb for pickup. <v Ken Verdoia>Car after car drove around David, younger and healthier <v Ken Verdoia>neighbors watched from their homes as he lay in the street. <v Ken Verdoia>Fred and Emily Storing managed to lift David to his feet and then carry him inside.

<v Emily Storing>Cause I know that Man upstairs and I could have worse, and I hope somebody would come <v Emily Storing>to my aid. <v Emily Storing>I'm not 15. <v Emily Storing>One of these days, somebody may need to pick me out of the street, I hope they do. <v Emily Storing>He said, ?running over me? <v Emily Storing>[Man says, "Was about the size of it."] <v Ken Verdoia>While the Storings had no fear of David, another longtime neighbor did, <v Ken Verdoia>and a relationship was shunned over the fear of AIDS in this Texas neighborhood. <v Doreen Sharpton>I don't know why she turned that. She would say, tell someone that three <v Doreen Sharpton>doctors told her that if she came near David and shook his hand she <v Doreen Sharpton>would get AIDS. And I said there's no way she could get <v Doreen Sharpton>AIDS from that, but um she's never looked at me and never spoke <v Doreen Sharpton>to me since that day, you know, and David absolutley used to adore that <v Doreen Sharpton>lady, you know. <v Interviewer>And you've known her for how long?

<v Doreen Sharpton>About 17 years. <v Interviewer>And you don't even talk anymore. <v Doreen Sharpton>And she doesn't even talk to us anymore. <v David Sharpton>Everyone has to worry about this disease, or <v David Sharpton>they're going to find they're going to be in real trouble. <v David Sharpton>And um they ?inaudible? <v David Sharpton>have a member of family, who has AIDS. <v Ken Verdoia>During the summer of 1992, word of David's failing health trickled back to <v Ken Verdoia>Utah, his friends and former colleagues steeled themselves <v Ken Verdoia>for imminent news of another AIDS death. <v Ken Verdoia>The work of AIDS education was carried on, but for many there was a sense <v Ken Verdoia>that the momentum had been lost. <v Donald Steward>I think we're probably in a worse situation now <v Donald Steward>than we were in the beginning because that enthusiasm and the novelty <v Donald Steward>has worn off, and there's a complacency that has crept right across

<v Donald Steward>from the gay community to the health care policy makers <v Donald Steward>right across the board. There's just this complacency, and apathy, and burnout; <v Donald Steward>I mean, burnout is a real issue now, we're over 10 years into this <v Donald Steward>illness and it hasn't been fixed yet and we're seeing <v Donald Steward>more and more people die. Utah was spared a lot of those early ravages because it <v Donald Steward>took a while. We were a secondary site, we saw it hit the coasts and we thought, <v Donald Steward>God this is awful. We knew it would hit Utah eventually. <v Donald Steward>But I think the society here doesn't want to hear about it. <v Donald Steward>We've delegate-well relegated AIDS to <v Donald Steward>like 15 second soundbites on TV. <v Donald Steward>We cover the fundraisers. We done cover the issues. <v Louise Eutropius>I think we stand sort of at a crossroads. <v Louise Eutropius>You know, I think we have the opportunity to make some changes. <v Louise Eutropius>But whether there are enough people to stand together

<v Louise Eutropius>and fight to make those changes, I really don't know. <v Louise Eutropius>I think a lot of people are getting tired, um it's frustrating <v Louise Eutropius>you know, when we started our clinic in '89, we had 12 patients, we're up to 250 patients <v Louise Eutropius>now. We're seeing an-we continue to see an increasing number of new patients. <v Louise Eutropius>It makes me wonder, you know, are we really being effective? <v Louise Eutropius>I mean, we talked about all this education that's being done and <v Louise Eutropius>we're seeing more women being infected, more adolescents being infected. <v Louise Eutropius>You know, how effective is our education? <v Kristen Ries>I think we see a backslide. <v Kristen Ries>I think there's still a lot of progress being made scientifically and medically, <v Kristen Ries>but I think we have a huge backsliding in people's attitude towards HIV. <v Kristen Ries>People that you think should know a lot about it because it's all been on the media just <v Kristen Ries>don't know it, and I think the American public is tired of hearing about it. <v Carolyn Spriggs>Well, I think the person who has AIDS is tired of hearing about it, too.

<v Carolyn Spriggs>Tyler came to me not even a week ago and said, Mom, when is my AIDS going to go away? <v Carolyn Spriggs>And it broke my heart because I think that AIDS in Utah is not or in <v Carolyn Spriggs>the nation or in the world is not going away because of our lack of interest. <v Carolyn Spriggs>"Oh, I'm not at risk. <v Carolyn Spriggs>So why should I worry about it?" But the truth of matter is, if you take a poll now, I <v Carolyn Spriggs>think that every person you talk to, I would say probably 50 <v Carolyn Spriggs>percent of them would know somebody or know somebody of somebody who has AIDS. <v Lee Weaver>I believe that for a while everything was exciting. <v Lee Weaver>You know, we'll-we'll stand behind it, and then suddenly either <v Lee Weaver>the voices were stilled or the sensitivity was dulled, and <v Lee Weaver>there aren't enough voices for AIDS. <v Lee Weaver>There's too much still, "it's not my issue.", It will be everybody's <v Lee Weaver>issue. It isn't going to go away just because people want it to go away. <v Lee Weaver>I believe that the time will come when everybody knows someone who's dying of AIDS.

<v Norma Hird>The majority of the public considers AIDS a plague. <v Norma Hird>They treat people that have AIDS as if they have a plague, they have no <v Norma Hird>compassion for them. There are some that do, but the majority of them don't, <v Norma Hird>and until there is a cure found, so great <v Norma Hird>people like David don't have to die, I don't think we <v Norma Hird>succeeded. <v Ken Verdoia>It's late June in Lancaster, Texas, and David is clearly moved to the final days <v Ken Verdoia>of his life. He's just fallen again. <v Ken Verdoia>Neuropathy laying greater claim on his mobility. <v Doreen Sharpton>I noticed he was having a hard time walking and I said, David, you ought to be careful, <v Doreen Sharpton>just take your time and stop you know, every so often and rest, ?take? <v Doreen Sharpton>it in. But when he got to the door, I was putting the bed down for him so <v Doreen Sharpton>he could get onto the bed. <v Doreen Sharpton>And all of a sudden I noticed he put that foot forward, <v Doreen Sharpton>and it tripped him, and he went right over the walker, and he hit his head right on the

<v Doreen Sharpton>bed, broke his glasses, cuts his-rest of his nose, <v Doreen Sharpton>and cuts his eye. <v Ken Verdoia>In rushing to help her son, Doreen violates a cardinal principle in caring for <v Ken Verdoia>people with AIDS. She has direct barehanded contact with David's <v Ken Verdoia>blood. <v Doreen Sharpton>Blood everywhere. So what I did right away, I got a wet wash rag and started to <v Doreen Sharpton>wipe the blood off you see. No, I don't think about myself and only supposed to wear <v Doreen Sharpton>gloves, you supposed to do this when you around blood, but I didn't give that a thought, <v Doreen Sharpton>then my main concern was David. <v Ken Verdoia>Eventually, Doreen dons rubber gloves, but the incident is a powerful <v Ken Verdoia>reminder that medical hope is now gone. <v Ken Verdoia>Quietly, the family begins to talk of miracles and they also <v Ken Verdoia>talk about the end. <v Doreen Sharpton>Right now for David, I would hope for a miracle, I don't fear-some <v Doreen Sharpton>miracle to come along and wipe this disease out and wipe

<v Doreen Sharpton>it out of just everybody. <v Doreen Sharpton>For David and for everybody, nobody deserves this. <v Doreen Sharpton>Nobody deserves to have AIDS and deserves to suffer and that this <v Doreen Sharpton>disease, nobody. <v Doreen Sharpton>And then I think about my David, I think about you know-growing <v Doreen Sharpton>up, never think more ?inaudible? Because like I said, he was never any trouble, and <v Doreen Sharpton>I think about him dying, and that's when I. <v Doreen Sharpton>You know, that's when I sob because I don't want to lose him. <v Doreen Sharpton>I want-I want to keep him around forever. <v Doreen Sharpton>You know, I never thought that I'd lose any children before me. <v Doreen Sharpton>That's what I thought David would outlive me but um <v Doreen Sharpton>God altered the plans I imagined. <v Doreen and Woman>Where's his toothbrush? It's over there. It's in that red jar ?red thing? <v Doreen and Woman>You can't you know mix that up. <v Ken Verdoia>David can no longer dress and care for himself.

<v Ken Verdoia>His close cousin Deedee is with him for long stretches. <v Ken Verdoia>Deedee maintains an optimistic air for David, but <v Ken Verdoia>confides her fear of David's death, and he's clearly shaken when conversation <v Ken Verdoia>turns in that direction. <v Ken Verdoia>Doreen has talked to David's doctor and tough decisions are being made. <v Doreen Sharpton>I do not want to see David suffer, linger on and suffer. <v Doreen Sharpton>The doctors even told us in that aspect and they said, when the <v Doreen Sharpton>time comes, you don't want to put him on any machines or anything you just want him to, <v Doreen Sharpton>and I said, yeah, I just want him to go, because I don't want to see him suffer. <v Doreen Sharpton>It's too you know, it's too far, break my heart to see him suffering like that. <v Doreen Sharpton>It broke my heart to see my husband suffer like that. <v Ken Verdoia>For his part, David's thoughts turn to Utah and to the cure that has eluded <v Ken Verdoia>him in his seven year fight against AIDS. <v David Sharpton>I just mess around, I love the beauty of <v David Sharpton>them, and they're-they're just glorious.

<v David Sharpton>And I look up at a mountain and ask I said, well, if God can put a <v David Sharpton>mountain like that on this Earth, he could take <v David Sharpton>and make a cure. <v David Sharpton>That's what this is. <v Interviewer>Do you still hold out hope that man <v Interviewer>can find a cure? <v David Sharpton>Well, they're getting closer to it, and I don't see how they <v David Sharpton>can't, they're getting very close to finding it. <v Interviewer>So there may be a cure out there for David? <v David Sharpton>I hope so. <v Interviewer>Is it a function now of talking with the doctor about time? <v Interviewer>And what does he tell you? And what do you believe?

<v David Sharpton>Well, I don't think I'm going to be dead in a year, <v David Sharpton>I'd say two years. <v Doreen Sharpton>David says two years. <v Doreen Sharpton>But David, once, you know, wants to think he's got two years. <v Doreen Sharpton>But the doctor said you could go at any time. <v Doreen Sharpton>And if he does get pneumonia, they're not going to put him <v Doreen Sharpton>on any kind of machine to keep him alive because it wouldn't-it wouldn't be merciful <v Doreen Sharpton>to do that. They said that the best thing that if David did get any bad infections <v Doreen Sharpton>to just to let him go, that would be the merciful thing to do. <v Doreen Sharpton>So what we have to watch out for now is any kind of really bad infections. <v Doreen Sharpton>And, you know, in your setting and stuff like that, but I can see <v Doreen Sharpton>that David is going down more each time, you know? <v Ken Verdoia>Not far from Lancaster is a cemetery. <v Ken Verdoia>On a slight hill, it overlooks Dallas, where David's battle with AIDS started seven years

<v Ken Verdoia>ago. It also overlooks Lancaster, where David's battle is <v Ken Verdoia>now ending. In the heart of the cemetery are the graves of David's young <v Ken Verdoia>brother and father, and the mother faces laying another child <v Ken Verdoia>to rest. <v Doreen Sharpton>I asked them if they could open my little boy son Duane's grave, you know, <v Doreen Sharpton>my little boy that I lost at 10 years of age, and have David put <v Doreen Sharpton>in there with his brother and they said, yes, it can be done. <v Doreen Sharpton>And I said, that's what I want. <v Doreen Sharpton>I want that done. So he can be with his little brother and his father up there. <v Doreen Sharpton>I don't care how much it cost, I'll pay for it by the month, I can do that later. <v Doreen Sharpton>They said you can do that. Then I can go visit all of them, you know, <v Doreen Sharpton>and put flowers on them. <v Doreen Sharpton>And remember those special occasions which, yes, I do for my little boy and I do for my <v Doreen Sharpton>husband. I've done it ever since he died, I've never forgotten. <v Doreen Sharpton>I go up all the time, if I have to crawl up, I go me and my sister go. <v Doreen Sharpton>It's hard for me to bend so that she-she puts the flowers on the grave and does all that

<v Doreen Sharpton>stuff for me, you know. <v Nurse>I mean, he's doing good. I mean he's taking it easy. [Indistinct conversation]. <v Doreen Sharpton>I think people will remember him for the good fight he put up in Utah <v Doreen Sharpton>and the good fight he put up in ?inaudible? <v Doreen Sharpton>Get across to people you know about this disease and it's not just <v Doreen Sharpton>a homosexual disease, it can happen to anyone, any family, any time. <v Doreen Sharpton>And I just wanted to remember that and to remember David <v Doreen Sharpton>as a good person, as a good, kind, loving person <v Doreen Sharpton>that fought for what he thought was right, and he go to cross <v Doreen Sharpton>too, you know. And that's why I volunteered ?inaudible?. <v Doreen Sharpton>[Indistinct conversations] <v Doreen Sharpton>And it's hard, because it's just a mother's love, you know.

<v Doreen Sharpton>I guess when you carry that baby for nine months inside you, it's that special bond you <v Doreen Sharpton>know, when you go to that labor and there's that special, you know, bond. <v Doreen Sharpton>And that's part of you, you know. <v Doreen Sharpton>And that's what I think and uh when that certain <v Doreen Sharpton>part goes or when that certain person dies, that's part of you gone <v Doreen Sharpton>too. <v Doreen Sharpton>Don't get up yourself now. <v Doreen Sharpton>I'll be up before you, good night, darling. <v Doreen Sharpton>God bless, I love you. <v David Sharpton>The message I would give would be that all of us can be pioneers <v David Sharpton>in the battle against AIDS, that we can all learn <v David Sharpton>to overcome this disease, and I would hope

<v David Sharpton>that the people of this state will learn a lesson from AIDS <v David Sharpton>and perhaps that is that AIDS has been sent from us, possibly by God. <v David Sharpton>But it's been sent here as a tool of compassion <v David Sharpton>to see how much like God, we truly are. <v David Sharpton>That would be the message.