No one should die alone

Last week was World AIDS Day on December 1st.

This day has become an important one for me because I have a lot of friends who have HIV/AIDS.

My Missional Community hosts a meal in our neighborhood every month and anyone is invited. There is even an email that goes out to the whole neighborhood association list.

But the people who have been the most faithful to join are the residents of the public housing high rise and then the residents of Clare Housing.

Clare Housing offers us hospitality and lets us use their community room for the meals.

The people who live in Clare Housing all have HIV/AIDS and would otherwise be living on the streets. This is detrimental for anyone, but specifically if you have AIDS, since medication needed for the virus must be refrigerated.

If meds are taken by those with HIV/AIDS they are able to live a longer life and.

Just as important, the medication makes it almost impossible for the virus to spread through the typical methods.

This is keeping the AIDS epidemic down in Minnesota and will continue to decline as Clare housing continues to give people a home as well as stabilizing their medications.

We have been eating with neighbors for over a year and a half now and it is just one meal a month. However, that small amount of time is developing into very precious and deep relationships.

There are many stories I could tell, but perhaps the most meaningful of this last year was Camilo. Camilo was in his 60s, he was originally from Cuba and had been in Minnesota for a long time before living at Clare Housing.

He had a smile that was contagious, it lit up the room given his bright white dentures.

His English was so-so but he loved having conversations with everyone and people were drawn to him.

We got word that the virus had put too much strain on his body and he had a heart attack and a stroke at the same time.

Everyone in our community was so sad to hear the news. We visited him, brought him cards from the kids and made sure he knew he was loved. He had a couple close friends in his life, but no family in the US.

One day when Anne from our community went to visit him at the hospital, she shared as explicitly as she could the love Jesus has for Camilo. He couldn’t really protest since he had a tracheotomy tube in his neck and couldn’t speak.

Anne asked him if he believed that Jesus loved him enough to give everything for him.

He held her hand and mouthed, “of course!”

Later that week Camilo died and it was an honor for our Missional Community to host his memorial service, right there in the community room where we eat every month. Most of our community were there as well as many neighbors who have been a part of our meals.

Many of the staff were there from Clare Housing and we shared about those visits with Camilo and his faith.

We celebrated together that he was with Jesus and free from the pain and suffering that wreaked havoc on his virus ridden body.

There are many people who don’t experience “family” if they don’t have their legal or biological family in their life any more. We get the opportunity to be family to each other. That is one of the greatest gifts we have to offer and receive from God – Being in the family of God! So we must share it!

No one should die alone, no matter where they live or what their circumstances are.

Camilo didn’t die alone. He had friends with him until the end and we are all better people for having known him.

Dedicated to Camilo Emilo Valdes Delelis 1949-2015