Sarah’s Song: A True Story of Love and Courage (revised)
Once upon a time, a girl named Janice met a boy named Bill. They fell in love and married at their early 20s. They dreamed to live happily after with their kids. If the first kid was a girl, they would name her Sarah. That’s where the title of the book came from. Unfortunately, they couldn’t have children. The reason was not that they were physiologically incompetent but the fact that they couldn’t bear to see their children suffering, struggling or even die at a very young age, simply because both of them had AIDS.
Janice wrote “Sarah’s Song: A True Story of Love and Courage” in a journal format to record the unusual life of her and Bill as AIDS patients as their lives were draining away. Honestly, I barely think about the life of AIDS patients, the unbearable physical pain, the financial burden and emotional loss, the fear of death, the humiliation from an indifferent and frightened society. Janice portrayed many facets of living with HIV. She was angry at her husband Bill from whom she was infected while she still deeply loved and carefully took care of him. She was tortured by the fear of death and being left alone. She struggled with the embarrassment of disclosing the truth to family and friends. What’s most inspiring was her consistent fight with AIDS for a better life. In addition, her family and friends showed great empathy and unconditional support to her, which propped her to go through the mishaps. I was touched by her strong and persistent desire of living a life like healthy people and encouraged by her positive attitude in face of unexpected adversities.
Janice was infected by her husband Bill who was homosexual for a short period of time before married her. Bill was a very attractive guy, super smart and very successful in his career. However, only two years after their marriage, Bill was diagnosed with AIDS and died painfully after 9 years of juggling between treatment and relapses. Soon Janice was also diagnosed with AIDS. From that moment, she knew Sarah could only be conceived in her dream. Both of them suffered horrible physical deterioration including neuropathy, deafness, retinitis/blindness, ulcer etc. It is not difficult to picture the physical appearance when their bodies were brutally aggressively destroyed by HIV. They chose to fight bravely instead of terminating their lives albeit physical worsening and mental torment, which made their life much more meaningful and encouraging.
AIDS as well as many incurable genetic disorders are chronic killers. Without effective cure, people can do nothing but agonizingly watching the patients dying. Sometimes, the patients’ soul is devastated beyond repair in a much faster pace than deterioration of their bodies. However, genetic disorders are, to some extent, uncontrollable whereas AIDS is avoidable. You won’t decide whom you mate with according to the partner’s genetic background, not to mention the incidence of new mutations. Meanwhile, more than one generation and their extended families could be involved in the same genetic disorders resulted from the share of partial genetic makeup. While I am compassionate their misfortune, moved by their undying and love, inspired by their unyielding fight for a healthy life, I believe, being responsible and paying great attention to prevent certain avoidable diseases from happening in the first place would undoubtedly benefit both an individual and his family.
