Lamentations

Lamentations

Noel Laflin

12-1-20

December 1^st is World AIDS Day, first observed thirty-two years ago.

I remember dressing in all-white clothes (dress shirt, slacks, shoes) the following year, along with others from my sign language class (similarly dressed in white), climbing an outdoor roster at UCI and rapidly finger-spelling names of folks who had died of the disease as they were read aloud to the crowd assembled that chilly day.  Those of us from the ASL class did this for the benefit of the hearing impaired.  My boyfriend at the time, who happened to be deaf, was one of those in attendance. There were so many names read aloud that afternoon, my fingers, along with the other signers, were sore just trying to keep up with the alternating readers at the microphone.

As years went by, I began to record the names of friends who died from AIDS in the margins of a childhood Bible.  I believe I wrote them in the book of Lamentations. There were too many names, unfortunately.

One day, I wrote down the name of a beautiful young deaf lad who I had once loved.

Somewhere around here lurks that old Bible.

I believe I will look for it and read those hand-written names aloud - and finger-spell, despite being a bit rusty, one name in particular.