It's easy to let the adage "You have to know where you've been to know where you're going" go in one ear and out of the other. However, in the fight against AIDS, the importance of remembrance can't be overstated. Written in 1994, Rebecca Brown's The Gifts of the Body illustrates in simple yet gripping prose moments of those with the disease nearing their end and those caring for them. The story is narrated by an unnamed home health care aide, who chronicles the stories of her clients (all of whom have AIDS) and events in her time with them. In actuality, it's more than a chronicle. Brown's writing has her narrator inviting the reader to the world she inhabits as opposed to detailing events. It is a heart rending display of the moments associated with caring for and being with someone as they prepare to leave this earth from a devastating disease.
Each page oozes with the sense of the dignity of the human person, and the moral heroism of upholding that through everyday actions, even as the recipient is nearing the end of life. The narrator's respect for her clients as human beings and her determination to treat them as such are palpable. Life is treated as a gift, which is even demonstrated how each chapter is titled "The Gift of...". Such is necessary and illustrated so as the characters face the ravages of the AIDS virus. The inevitable loss of death is treated with tender care, especially at the story's end.
Things have come a long way in the AIDS battle since the era in which Rebecca Brown wrote Gifts. Even then, as Brown illustrates, the fight has been about the right and duty for every person to be treated with dignity-especially in the face of illness and end of life. At the same time, it's a timeless lesson. If we're going to progress, especially in the struggle against AIDS, honoring peoples' humanity has to be at it's core.
