Meet Keith. He is the second-to-youngest of 5 siblings. At 18 he became the only member of his family to leave home (Springfield, Massachusetts). For “35 years,” Keith, “traveled either by bus or sometimes plane, throughout the United States while working as a nursing assistant at different nursing homes and never stayed a place longer than 6 months,” until he came to Bellingham, where his world experienced love, loss, and the challenges of HIV/AIDS.
30 years ago, at Rumors Bar in WA, Keith Lefebvre met John J. Julius (pictured in the frame Keith is holding up), a Lummi Island Native American who welcomed Keith into his heart, and family. John had been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS before the couple met, but that remained a non-deterring factor in their decision to marry in a Metropolitan Community Church which no longest exists in Bellingham.
After one night, a little too much to drink, and a few weeks later, the doctor told Keith he was HIV positive.
“I thought my life was over. I maxed out my credit cards to no end, took all my money out of the bank.”
Keith defied his own odds, and lived for 30 years HIV positive until last year when he found out he had progressed into full AIDS.
John suffered from AIDS near the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in America. One of the first type of treatments for HIV/AIDS was a drug know to Keith as A.Z.T. It took doctors years to figure out the drug did more harm than good. In John’s case it, “attacked his kidneys and liver,” and took his life. Keith is certain if he was taking a different type of medicine he would be alive and next to him today.
This photo Keith is holding is of John just weeks before he passed away. The metal in the lower right corner is a key Keith gave to John which opened a heart shaped box with Keith’s photo inside.
The “key to my heart only I lost the heart and my heart when John died.”
For 10 years Keith took the same drug that killed his lover. He was sick every day and dropped to 90 pounds by the time he came to the Sean Humphrey House 4 years ago. The Sean Humphrey house, located at 1630 H Street in Bellingham, is a private home which houses 6 residents living with HIV/AIDS. Today, Keith takes 30 pills, “just to keep me running,” he explains, as he shows me his drawer of medicine pictured above.
Despite 30 years of HIV/AIDS, four back operations, 2 hip replacements, and his early stages of dementia, Keith is living proof that with the right medicine an HIV/AIDS patient can live 30 to 40 more years.
“I am not sick anymore,” Keith explains. He gained his weight back in the 4 years at the Sean Humphrey house and now is planning to move out to an apartment downtown.
“The most important thing for me is to move, get the help I need and get on with my life, to get my dignity back.”
“You got to follow the rules here,” mentions Keith, explaining he is not so good at that and why moving next month out of the Sean Humphrey house is his number one priority along with restoring his sense of pride and dignity. Keith has arranged for a caregiver to come by for assistance and is looking forward to living his life with the independence he deserves.
