"MORE THAN LIKELY I GOT INFECTED through my husband, but I don’t think that’s relevant. He was very sick and got an AIDS diagnosis. Then my children and I got tested. Christina, my middle child, and I tested positive. My older daughter, Samantha, and my youngest child, Joey, are negative. My husband has since died of AIDS.

Christina found out about her illness through her older sister, Samantha. . . One day she said to me, ‘Yeah, Mommy, when is that HIV going to be out of my blood?’ When you keep secrets, especially from kids, they’re going to think the worst.

I never put my own health first. I had missed two mammogram appointments. . . Last year I was diagnosed with breast cancer. When I was going through chemotherapy it was very hard on my kids.

I would say that my kids are the reason I never gave up. It was not even an option. Whatever thoughts I might have had about checking out, my reality was my kids.

About three years ago another woman and I started a program in New York City called SMART  University (Sisterhood Mobilized for AIDS/HIV Research and Treatment). . . It’s about empowering women to take control of their lives, to become informed participants in treatment, making decisions, and hopefully to become activists and advocates for themselves and maybe for their community.

After the diagnosis, every waking moment it was ‘I’m HIV positive, I’m HIV positive.’ Now it’s not who I am. I‘m not HIV. It’s a disease that I have and I’m living with it. I deal with whatever comes my way one step at a time. And Christina, she’s doing great right now.”