Toronto, ON
Canada
Cawthra Square Toronto AIDS Memorial since 23 June 1993
2700 names
AIDS Walk 2010 – Toronto
Today, DR and I registered and marched in the AIDS Walk for Toronto. DR and I don’t often sponsor events, but for some reason, after skipping a few years, I felt I really wanted to march in this years walk. I’ve lost many friends over the years, the late 80′s and 90′s were especially bad. And on days like today, I walk and reflect on all these past friendships that are not forgotten. So with this in mind, we set off on our afternoon journey, which took us through Cawthra Park where the Toronto AIDS memorial is located. People were given red carnations to be deposited at their will through the memorial. This memorial is a work in progress unfortunately… And, in 2010, there are already way too many names added to the list.
I’ll always remember an AIDS benefit I went to where we were given a pink ribbon and were asked to write on it the name of a friend who had passed from complications from AIDS. At the time, my friend Jacques had just died, so I wrote his name. I turned to my friend and asked who he wrote down on his and I burst into sobbing tears when he showed me, he had written all the letters of the alphabet because he had known too many people that had died and couldn’t just picked one…
So today’s walk was in memory of all these friends. You are not forgotten. We’re still fighting. Photo © SharkBoy

19 September 2010
SharkBoy, Toronto