Miami Herald - November 14, 2007
Steve Rothaus, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com

Instead, the committee gave Powers her plaque early -- at the hospice where she is dying of advanced bone cancer.

"They had decided to [honor] me before they knew I was sick," said Powers, 69, now bedridden and spending her final days at The Villa hospice in Fort Lauderdale.

Since the start of the AIDS epidemic, Powers has had a personal stake in the battle. Her 40-year-old brother -- one of four gay siblings -- died of AIDS complications in 1989. Her son, now 46, has battled HIV since 1983.

In June, Powers retired from her longtime position as Broward's HIV/AIDS services coordinator for the Archdiocese of Miami. The local 18-member World AIDS Day committee then announced she would receive its annual Lifetime of Service award.

Knowing that Powers couldn't attend the World AIDS Day ceremony in Oakland Park on Nov. 30, committee members went to the hospice on Oct. 26 and presented her with a plaque.

"Part of the reason for us doing the award a few weeks ago was selfish. We need her to know how much we love her," said Jean Starkey, chairwoman of Broward's World AIDS Day committee. "She has this spunk and this grit, it makes her a really dynamite, powerful woman. But there is this tenderness and this passion in this woman for what she has done for the community."

Powers is a bit embarrassed by the fuss. "It was just my job," she said. "It's just something I did."

From 2000 on, Powers ran the Archdiocese's Broward AIDS ministry, 45 volunteers and 20 clients. The ministry provides case management, financial assistance, support groups and spiritual support services for those with HIV/AIDS.

She wishes gay Catholics felt more comfortable with the church.

"There's a hurt and a void. It's something we're still working on," Powers said. "We're dealing with rules and regulations. And traditions. Traditions are hard to break. My advice: If indeed you are gay, then you need to go to church. You need to turn to God. Only God can change it."

Being gay?

"No, no, no, no, no. All God can change is your attitude."

Through the church ministry, Powers counseled sick people and their families and made sure they got whatever they needed.

"Barbara knows every person. Every one of them," said Starkey, who served on the AIDS Day committee with Powers. "She knows this is where they are physically, this is where they are emotionally and this is where they are spiritually."

Starkey said Powers once worked with a poor immigrant client who had lost an eye to disease.

"All he wanted was an eye to place in the empty socket," Starkey said. "She held bake sales, 50-50 raffles, all this little stuff we'd think would never make a difference. Then she found a surgeon to do it at a discount. It was important to this gentleman and it was important to Barbara."

Powers says she's motivated by "unconditional love." That extends beyond her family and friends. She recalls a young man named Xavier who was suffering with AIDS.

"His mother and sister would visit Xavier," she said. 'His father would make them hose off before they could come back into the house. Is that sad or what? I took Xavier's hand and said, 'They need our prayers more than you.' He died a couple of weeks later."

Powers doesn't understand such family cruelty. She grew up with four gay brothers and later had a gay son, Robert Powers Jr. He came out to her at age 16.

"I took to my bed with a headache for three days," she said, adding, "This is not what you want for your kid."

She quickly got over her disappointment. "How do you turn your back on your kids?" she said.

Powers has a message for others with gay children. "If we had more parents who were willing to come out and speak about the meaning of having a gay child in a positive way, it would stop some of this drama," she said.

Bob Jr. said his mother never spoke with him about her AIDS work.

"I know how much work she's done, but she never shared any of it with me," he said. 'I would run into friends of mine who knew who she was. But they did not know I was her son. They'd be talking about this woman called Barbara Powers. 'You mean with Catholic charities?' They'd say yeah. 'That's my mother.' "

Bob Jr., vice president of the MiMo Biscayne Association in Miami, now spends most nights at the hospice with his mom, she said.

Powers said she told him, "The more nights you come up here, the more we're going to talk. And the more we open up, the more this love thing comes through."

Powers learned about love and philanthropy as a child from her parents. Her father owned a shoe store in West Hartford, Conn., and gave pairs to poor children with polio. After graduating from the University of Florida, Barbara Romaneillo married Robert Powers in 1960 and settled in Fort Lauderdale. Bob Sr. broke his neck in a car accident on Oct. 17, the same day he checked Barbara into hospice. He is slowly recuperating in a Fort Lauderdale rehab center.

The couple also have two daughters, Cay Perr Fulop, 45, of Asheville, N.C., and Annmarie Fletcher, 40, of Fort Lauderdale.

After her mom became ill, Fletcher started a website to connect Powers with relatives and friends. Since October, there have been thousands of hits from well wishers, Fletcher said.

"I didn't know I knew all those people," said Powers, who no longer can move her legs. "They send me notes, epistles. I am absolutely flabbergasted to think that I touched these people. I really am. Is that amazing?"

She cries -- just for a moment -- and reflects on her life's work. "I really loved what I did."

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