by Taylor Bryant
The University of West Georgia hosted an HIV/AIDS Talk on Tuesday, November 19, at 6:30 p.m. at UWG’s Ingram Library in the Murphy Reading Room. The keynote speaker, UWG alumna and author Lee Kearney, opened up about her experience as the mother of a son living with HIV.
With standing room only, Lee shared the synopsis of her book, “He Always Brought Me Flowers: A Mother’s Remembrance of Her Son’s Journey,” which tells the story of her son’s journey with addiction, HIV/AIDS and her grief and loss.
“This journey has taken me around so many places,” says Lee. [She says her son, Kevin Kearney, was turned away from a Georgia hospital for treatment. After being accepted at Grady hospital in Atlanta, Lee says she was able to experience an extremely diverse group of people. ] “Now, my middle name is diversity,” she laughs.
“The waiting room [at Grady hospital] was old and run down, the wall needed painting, and the chairs were hard. But the staff was wonderful and my son was up and walking,” Lee shares in her book.
In addition to caring for her son, Lee served as a support system during her son’s drug addition. “I bought my son’s story that he wasn’t using drugs, but those were lies.” She often did what she could to intervene with Kevin’s drug addiction.
From finding out her son was HIV positive, discovering his drug use and being introduced to his homosexual lifestyle, Lee left the students with a very important message. “Love yourself enough to take care of yourself and protect yourself,” she says. “Hold out on making major decisions while you’re young. You will have a better start of keeping yourself out of a jam.”
She shared a poem that she wrote in 1997 of her experience with her son. “His greatest fear was that I would forget him, my greatest fear was how much I would miss him,” she continued.
Lee ended her speech sharing that she plans to write a book about her journey of finding out that her father was not her biological father. Since her son’s death, Lee travels to colleges, businesses, government agencies, hospitals and treatment centers speaking on HIV and substance abuse
This event was co-sponsored by UWG’s College of Social Sciences, Alumni Association and the Responsible Sexuality Committee.
