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Bothell mother Sandy Stillwell
never envisioned herself as an activist for legislation to support HIV/AIDS
patients until the unthinkable happened.
"I was a normal, middle-class
business woman, married with three daughters. Two of my daughters were married
and my youngest, Nicole, had been in a five year relationship. As far as I
knew, I had nothing to worry about. My girls and I were all safe and healthy."
said Stillwell.
Yet in October, 2000, Nicole
Price's former boyfriend contracted pneumonia, became gravely ill and soon
learned that he had full-blown AIDS. Price was tested and found out she was
positive at the age of 25.
Doctors told her that her
boyfriend had likely been HIV-positive before she met him.
For the first few weeks after
her diagnosis, "all I wanted to do was sleep." said Price. A college student at
the time, she threw herself into studying and work to block out the reality of
what she was facing. She waited several weeks to tell her family.
Stillwell said when she heard
the news, her world fell apart.
I was terrified my daughter
was going to die - never experience love, marriage and raising children ...
never realize her dreams. The thought of losing her ripped my heart out," she
said.
Compounding the anguish of
knowing that her daughter could die so young, Stillwell found almost no
information about heterosexual females who were infected with HIV by a husband,
boyfriend or rapist.
"Most of the attention had
been focused on the gay male population with HIV/AIDS" she said. "Probably the
most information I had was from watching Tom Hanks in the movie "Philadelphia".
We really don't get involved or become knowledgeable until we or somebody we
care about is diagnosed."
Stillwell searched the Web and
was furious to find an article claiming that a heterosexual woman would have to
sleep with 1,000 men to be infected with HIV. Such false information and the
stigma of being HIV-positive sent Price into a deep depression, her mother
said.
"She was afraid to tell anyone
and had no support group to help her copy," Stillwell said. "She lived in
California at the time, just 50 miles north of San Francisco (which has a
considerable gay population affected by HI/AIDS), yet there were no support
groups for straight women.
"She knew her life would never
be the same again, had a million questions and fears ... and nobody to talk
to."
Story
Continued - Page 2
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