“I went into the first ACON office in Newcastle. In 1988 it had just opened. I said I’d love to become a volunteer. I knew nothing about AIDS. The Community Support Network (CSN) program came to Newcastle so I trained up with them.
It was horrific back then with so many people dying. It was so hard to cope. I did cope for a while but I burnt out – because you had no rest from grief. A person dies, and then the next one, and the next one. You don’t get a chance to recover, you’re always grieving. I felt like I was a ‘professional pallbearer’.
There was a group of mothers that were looking after their adult children – they were always at the hospital. After their child died, they stayed. They stayed around and supported other people.
And I remember the nuns who would support us, and they learned so much about gay people – those nuns were so warm and accepting of everything. I occasionally see some of them now, all these years later.
We were looking after some very special people. I tried to have laughs and tried to make their time is as good as possible while there while you’re there with them. What I remember most was their resilience.”
