Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1993. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Miami Herald; Wednesday, December 1, 1993
Ozzie Osborne; Herald Staff Writer
"To me, it's almost like peace," he says. "I know I have a desire to live. I've clung to life. I could have given up when I was in the hospital."
Letarte says he is lucky: His family in Connecticut has been supportive. AIDS Help has assisted him immensely with the tedious job of getting his benefits and finding him a place to live.
"I'm so fortunate that AIDS Help came to my rescue," he says. "The red tape was hideous. The system here is amazing. They take care of you.
"And my parents have accepted it. They could say, 'Get out of my life.' But my mother's not that way. And I have support from friends."
He gets disability benefits of $485 a month; rent takes $230 of that. He gets most of his medicine through Medicaid and AIDS Help.
The 37-year-old Letarte grew up in Hartford, Conn., then moved to San Francisco, where he worked in a restaurant and moved in a gay world of drugs, alcohol and sex.
"Work was one big party," he recalls. "I'm sure I contracted AIDS 10 years before I was diagnosed with it in November of 1991."
Like many who end up in Key West, Letarte came on a lark, at the invitation of two San Francisco friends.
Today in Key West, Letarte's life is vastly different from what it was in the San Francisco days. The bars are definitely off limits in the celibate life he leads. He reads a lot, cooks, shops and does other simple chores.
He no longer smokes or drinks. He watches his diet, eats plenty of vegetables and fruit and cooks foods with as much fat as possible to maintain his weight.
A nurse comes to his apartment in a complex where other AIDS and HIV-positive persons live. She gives him chemo-therapy for the cancer that is spreading from his leg. That ailment makes it impossible for him to work.
Then there's the array of pills, some he won't take because of the side effects that can include headaches and diarrhea.
Since his immune system is deficient, anti-viral and -fungal drugs must be taken to ward off the ailments that would not affect a healthy person.
Coping, Letarte says, is a day-to-day thing.
"You can't project for a long time," he says.
CAPTION: PHOTO Stephen Letarte (s)
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