Today is World AIDS Day, and this year’s theme is “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response.” We are all called to reconsider what compassionate care can look like in our world today.

For me, this day is deeply personal. I wrote Hope in a Time of Dying to offer a window into one family’s struggle in 1994 with the cruel reality of this illness, which negatively affected far too many who were far too young. My novel, inspired by real life experiences, honors the lives of those who faced the AIDS crisis, whether as a person with AIDS, a family member who was walking with their loved one through this crisis, and/or friends who served as families to those whose own families had abandoned them. The novel grew from real stories, real hardships, and real losses. Living through an epidemic of this magnitude is life-changing.

On this World AIDS Day, I hope my book can serve as one more reminder that behind every statistic is a life — a brother, a partner, a friend — deserving of truth, dignity, and love. You can find Hope in a Time of Dying online at both Amazon and Barnes and Noble Booksellers.

With thoughts, prayers, and best wishes to all who have suffered from AIDS , now, then, and in-between. Here is to love, healing, and kindness.

My brothers, John and Jim, who died of AIDS in 1990 and 1994