That is all!
Continue readingAuthor: Kenn
My journey with AIDS...and more!: World AIDS Day 2014 has come and gone and something had me rattled
Here’s my Facebook feed today after I heard Shaun Proulx on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning today referring to his blog on HIV Divorce. I have AIDS, and have had for many years. I can’t seem to walk that back, to HIV only, so I think of myself as surviving HIV/AIDS.
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: The true meaning of life…
“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” –Nelson Henderson
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Rest in Peace, Jamie Hubley
Originally posted on My journey with AIDS…and more!:“I’m tired of life, really. It’s so hard, I’m sorry, I can’t take it anymore.” “I don’t want my parents to think this is their fault, either. I love my mom and dad. It’s just too hard. I don’t want to wait three
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Lunch
I planned dessert first today after seeing Wanda’s Pie in the Sky picture on Facebook this morning. I walked over to Kensington Market on a near-empty stomach and plopped myself down on the patio at Caplansky’s Delicatessen on College Street: I was impressed with the way the water was delivered:
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: The certainty of uncertainty
In my ongoing quest to get to the bottom of my annoyingly reduced sleep, I received the results of a recent MRI of my brain when I visited my family doctor yesterday and the report was clearly not written for me to comprehend. Even my doctor was at a loss
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: I’m Thinking, “This is Going to Hurt!”: On ‘How Not to Deal with Grief’
From my friend Betty Ann on her Facebook page: “This article deeply moved me…as I suspect it will for any of you who have been impacted by the kind of grief associated with multiple loss, deaths due to overdose and or HIV/AIDS. Rather than just clicking on “like”, can you
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Sleep, no longer taken for granted, will soon be improving – hopefully
Early this month I had electrodes taped to my head, neck, chest and legs, then I was wished a good night for a sleep study to see why suddenly, to me at least, I couldn’t get a decent night of shut-eye. The results, which I received on Monday, showed that
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: On “The God Article” with Mark Sandlin: I Want My Religion Back – You Can Keep the Ugly Baggage
This post is a work in progress. Please join in with your comments! Please read this article first: I Want My Religion Back – You Can Keep the Ugly Baggage. When my friend and, to the point, Facebook friend, Lori Knight-Whitehouse posted this I replied: Kenn George Chaplin Let me
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Why I’m Marching with ACT with Pride!
My first encounter with ACT (AIDS Committee of Toronto) was in its early days operating over what at the time was a KFC take-out restaurant. Compassion and information deep-fried! I was still living in St. Catharines, Ontario in those days, those early days of HIV and the upstart AIDS Niagara.
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Letter to The Star Re: When free speech becomes hate crime (Letters, June 23)
From among the throngs walking past, largely ignoring him, a street preacher standing with a mic and an amplifier in front of Old City Hall called me out leaving the opening ceremonies of World Pride taking place at Nathan Phillips Square last Friday. Punching his words from between what he
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: A new low
“How long have you been wasting?” the chiropodist asked me a couple of weeks ago as she updated a history on me. The starkness of the verb, however accurate, stayed with me. I’ve always been thin, I said, but my weight has been falling a bit since last fall. Fast
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: April 30 revisited
Today marks eleven years since the beginning of events which form the basis of my autobiographical piece entitled Chopin, Roman Polanski and a cab. I will attempt to stay home after dark.
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Meet Sujata, Russian Blue beauty
Sujata, the name given to her by the previous human in her life, Kevin, is Sanskrit meaning “from a good family origin”; “Su” means “good”, “Jatakas” means “of good origins” or “well born”. The breed was also known as “archangel” in its early generations. Sujata has been hiding whenever
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Drop-kicking HIV/AIDS stigma to the curb
“This December I found a mass the size of a cantaloupe in my lung…I used social media to express my feelings without having to burden my family and friends. I’d like to write a feature…that explores the way the Internet has changed the way we view illnesses, both visible and
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: R.I.P. Emma
(From 04-04-2014) Following a “massive stroke” my beautiful friend of almost exactly fifteen years has left me. Emma (short for Emerald, the colour of her eyes) dropped to one side, sprawled on the floor, and let out a yell worthy of her Siamese ancestors. Now my breaths draw up sobs
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: R.I.P. Emma
(From 04-04-2014) Following a “massive stroke” my beautiful friend of almost exactly fifteen years has left me. Emma (short for Emerald, the colour of her eyes) dropped to one side, sprawled on the floor, and let out a yell worthy of her Siamese ancestors. Now my breaths draw up sobs
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Blog CPR
Facebook and Twitter have become my primary means of internet communication as of late but there is within me a desire to give my writer’s block the angioplasty treatment it may need. In the meantime, evidence that I have continued my love of photography:
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Blog CPR
Facebook and Twitter have become my primary means of internet communication as of late but there is within me a desire to give my writer’s block the angioplasty treatment it may need. In the meantime, evidence that I have continued my love of photography:
Continue reading