"Thank You Jim"
Jim. We were never formally inroduced, yet he gave me an early Christmas gift. It is worth more that you can imagine, yet costs nothing, except for perhaps his life. My life has been dramatically changed forever. In fact, if you were there, your life has been changed forever. As some of you may know, Jim had AIDS. On December 1st, World AIDS Day, Jim came to speak, teach and touch all our hearts. His thin, pale self approached the stand. After hearing his words, we all felt for him. He smiled, maybe even laughed once or twice. His story lingered with us as he gave the statistics. And then it happened. I cannot describe it in words, but if you were there you know what happened [he had a seizure-jp], and you know how you felt. At approximately 12:35 in the Cafe International, Jim went into seizure while speaking of the AIDS virus.
Many caring students came to his aid, and within twenty minutes the paramedics had arrived and wheeled him away. As he rode off, he left a little part of himself with us all- the fortunate ones who were there. The sad event proved to us the reality of AIDS. No one can deny the facts when they stand before our eyes. All of our prayers are with Jim. Our tears, our sorrow, and our thanks, for the lesson so strongly taught to us. If you felt as many of us did then, just reading about it still gives you a knot in your stomach and brings tears to your eyes. We wish Jim a speedy recovery and hope he can continue to speak, teach and live. And please- if you have sex, be safe, wear condoms, and kill this disease that's killing us.
(this was written by a student and published December 6, 1994.)
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"Are you gently sleeping
Here inside my dream
And isn't faith believing
All power can't be seen"