"I have one child. She's 15. And she's negative."
So says a single mom we'll call "Laurel" -- The Dominion Post agreed to withhold her name to protect her privacy -- describing one of the answered prayers in her life.
"I was pregnant when I was diagnosed [with the HIV virus]. I found out when I went for prenatal testing. I'd suspected. I had become more sexually promiscuous. And there were always times we didn't use a condom."
After the test, someone called Laurel at work and told her she needed to make a doctor's appointment immediately. She hung up. She couldn't think straight.
"So I called them back and they told me the news on the phone."
Laurel and the baby's father were not married. In fact, he was living with another woman and wanted little to do with his unborn child.
"He assumed like everybody else, including myself, that the baby would have AIDS and she'd die."
Laurel had two weeks to decide if she would have an abortion.
"I was very scared. I didn't want to be a sick person with a sick child."
The youngest of six, Laurel got some support from family. Some thought she should have the baby. Others didn't. Laurel felt terrible guilt.
"Finally, I couldn't handle it anymore. I went into shut-down mode. I let things happen around me."
But she decided to have the baby. She came eight weeks early and weighed 5 pounds. We'll call her "Jill."
It's difficult to know the HIV status of a newborn, and it wasn't until her daughter was 3 that Laurel, who now had AIDS, learned for sure she was negative.
Gratefully, she began a difficult task.
"I had to find a parent for her."
Ultimately, Laurel decided to consider adoption and turned to Catholic Charities. A volunteer there became a friend who offered other options. Medical studies, for instance. Maybe Laurel wouldn't die after all.
She didn't. Whether the studies helped or not, Laurel got better, got a job, and she and Jill moved to New England. When word of her illness got around her small town, though, she returned to West Virginia. Her sister called the AIDS Hotline and they referred Laurel to Caritas House.
"Caritas House encouraged me to get my own home. They helped with financing. They told me about the Positive Health Clinic where I go two or three times a month." Jill knows about everything. Laurel says she's fine.
"I think she's more mature than most children her age. She's more strong. If she thinks about [the AIDS] she doesn't say."
As far as the brightness level of her future, Laurel doesn't go there. "My hope for the future is to get some training and go back to work."
She seems to see her long-term future in Jill.
"I hope my daughter goes to college. She says she'd like to go into the health field." To see more of The Dominion Post or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dominionpost.com/. Copyright (c) 2008, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright (C) 2008, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.