If you want to know what it's like to survive with HIV, Pauline Jones, our cover girl, can give you an earful. At 42, she's got as much spirit as her two children, ages 26 and 24, and her two grandkids. What she shares is wisdom and strength borne of hardship and a message of faith and recovery. Pauline doesn't hide her HIV status from anyone or sugarcoat her difficult life-past or present. "I hate the fact that I have to live with this damn virus," she says frankly. "It takes so much just to get through every day. This virus don't give you no breaks."

Neither has her life. Born and raised in Queens, New York, Pauline experienced poverty, abuse, a teen pregnancy, addiction, homelessness, and recovery from drug dependence before getting HIV in 1991-which spun her back into drugs again. "Crack brought me to my knees," she says, recalling her former habit. "It kills everybody. I sold my soul and my body because of it." Back then, she says, "I couldn't manage my own life."

In 1992, she was still using drugs when she stumbled upon Housing Works, the largest organization for homeless people with AIDS in the United States. "It helped me save my life," she says. Today, she's off drugs, has an apartment and a bank account, is close to her children, and is training to be an HIV peer educator for youth. "They don't know where I've been," she says. "I can tell them." She's also found a new passion: acting. "The Housing Works Theatre project is my baby," says Pauline proudly. By sharing her life story with others, she's healing and getting out her message of self-love. For Jones, surviving HIV is a daily job, patterned on the 12-step model of harm reduction and recovery. She's gone through several HIV drug regimens and now takes 18 pills a day, plus something to control mild side effects. But as of November, her viral load was slowly rising, and she was getting ready to switch to a new regimen. While she admits her fears, she's focused on the future and on keeping her faith. "I do what's right for me every day," she says, "With God's grace."

You go, Mrs. Jones.

-ACD