Sorry for your friend’s loss. I just never hear about it any longer, but it seems people are still suffering and dying. It’s just not in the news like it once was. In the 80s and 90s, it was very much talked about.
It was probably in the early 2000s, but my mom and I went to an estate sale of two men that I presumed to be “partners”. One of the fellows was obviously VERY sick even though he was up and about. He had that very gaunt, frail look of which you speak. Didn’t know the man, but it was hard not to feel for him.
Yeah, I think the reason why no one talks about it is because no one wants to associate homosexuality with AIDS.
A close relative died of AIDS. Saw him the night he died, after having not seen him for some years. He knew me, even though he was drugged up the wah.
His ex-wife never married after he came out & they divorced. He caught AIDS some time thereafter and was one of the first in this general area to contract it.
Boy, could he make me laugh.
I am STILL mad at him.