Disbelief
I was talking with my mother tonight about various different things. Our conversations usually consist of at least 20 different topics that we discuss in a fairly good about of detail. Tonight she told me about some health issues my cousin Nick is going through. He is 28 years old, a little older then me and a little younger then my sister. He has had a hard life ever since he started high school really. By the time he got his GED he was hooked on speed and meth. My mom told me tonight that my aunt got a copy of an email that Nick's mother Linda sent to our other cousin Janet. The email described how Nick and his immediate family spent Thanksgiving together. At a healthy weight he is somewhere between 210-225 pounds. On Thanksgiving he was less then 150 pounds with flew-like symptoms. Needless to say they took him to the hospital to see what was wrong. I just found out tonight that he was diagnosed with Hepatitis C a while ago. Thanksgiving his mother and him found out that he also has HIV. He contracted it from sharing dirty needles. I knew he was in trouble and not healthy, but I just never really thought he would get HIV. The only thing I can think to myself is that this is going to kill him, and when it does, it's going to be a painful death. I hope he is able to lead a long life and that this forces him to get healthy. But no matter what, it will eventually become AIDS and it's most likely what's going to kill him. The worst part for me is that my aunt, and thus my mother and I are not supposed to know about this. So, even though he only lives in Healdsburg, I can't say anything about it. I just don't know where to go from here. I just hope that G-d is with him and that he gets the help he needs.