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I also delivered food and lunches to a lot of the boys who were in the near end stages of HIV and couldn’t leave their houses anymore or wouldn’t leave their houses anymore. And sometimes there’s a foster family that would take the HIV positive babies home and we help them take care of them.
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So, um, I spent most of my time after that really doing a lot of work in the HIV realm, whether it be in babies who were born at the hospitals and their families left them there, I would hold the babies. I’m sure what’s for everybody in my family, but everyone felt a little differently. And uh, losing him was very traumatic for me. I, you know, cause you don’t have him, you know who who’s going to do your hair, dress you up and take you out.
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Um, I lost my connection to the community that I grew up in. My brother did not live to his 27th birthday when I lost him. So he’s just gone longer than he was alive. He was HIV positive as early as 1985, um, died February 13th, 1990, 30 years ago. But anyway, um, John also, um, sadly died in the aids epidemic in the early nineties. And so, um, that’s where I realized that might be a little different. You’re gonna have the most fun you’ve ever had your whole life. And they’d be like, why are we going there? What kind of places I’m like, oh, you’re gonna have a blast. When I went to college, I would drag all my girlfriends to the local gay bars here in Orlando. Um, I loved it and I did not realize it wasn’t normal till I actually went off to college. My age was having that kind of fun, you know, especially like 15. It was my normal, um, it’s all I knew and I loved it very much. Um, I grew up dancing with drag Queens, gay men. And John took me to, um, gay beach in south Florida. And so while my parents were trying to, when I say “fix” John, when they were trying to send him to therapists and pastors and all kinds of places to try and, you know, fix him know every time he’d want to leave the house, my mother would always say to him, you know, take your sister because she figured you have to take your sister. And, um, it just, um, it really was a tumultuous time for our family. It was a very typical coming out story to this crazy Catholic Italian family. And so, um, back in the eighties, when John was coming out, uh, and our family, it did not go very well. He is four years older than I, so he was my, um, one of my big brothers, but my closest big brother. Um, there are five of us kids in the family, but John is my closest sibling to me in age. Um, I was lucky enough to be, um, raised with my older brother who happens to be gay. Um, the answer is kind of simple, I guess for me, it’s simple for me, it’s my normal. I think I’ve gotten in four and a half years is how did I wind up as a straight woman owning a gay bar? That was like a big, hot, hot question, I guess, burning question for everybody. I am the founder of the onePulse Foundation. Um, so I figured maybe we could, um, we could start off maybe, um, if you’d like, uh, you know, Barbara and Scott, maybe share a little bit about yourselves and, um, you know, how you founded the organization, um, some of the events that led up to it as well as, uh, and then we’ll just kind of bring us up to speed and then kind of start the discussion from there, if that makes sense. So, you know, thank you so much for being here and, uh, and sharing your time with us. Cause certainly, uh, it is a great one and certainly, um, you know, from everything that we know publicly about the event that occurred and everything that you’ve done since then, uh, you’ve certainly have made an impact and have, are really, you know, driving the local community and the community worldwide, uh, in a positive direction. And so, you know, we certainly wanted to share your story, share information about onePulse foundation, as well as kind of, you know, provide additional information that can help, um, you know, help you fulfill your mission. Um, you know, we had, uh, we had a very good chat with, uh, Rachel, uh, talking about, and obviously Eric has, has worked with you, uh, now for a little bit. We really appreciate you taking the time to, uh, to chat with us today. This podcast was transcribed through a third-party application.