The following is not self-narration, since the woman featured in this story has now passed away after suffering at the hands of those around her. She eventually died of a gallbladder infection after being denied a simple surgical procedure by doctors who deemed her “already dead” by virtue of her HIV infection.

She is a woman whose husband died of HIV infection after having passed the infection on to her. When the husband’s family discovered the cause of death, and that she too was infected, they accused her of being responsible. Blinded by the conviction that it was she who passed the infection on to their son, they subjected her to a series of humiliations and beatings, even going so far as to strip her children of their lawful inheritance.

The grieving widow found consolation only in the fact that her children were free of the virus. Seeing them in good health was enough to keep her going, despite the emotional exhaustion and crushing humiliation. But the abuse did not end there. She was later made to leave her home and was forced by her husband’s family to leave her children behind out of fear that she might transmit the virus to them if they continued living her care.

Estranged and alone, she was racked by the agony of being parted from her children. Her son was forced out of school and began working as a mechanic with his uncle. Her daughter was forced to drive a tuk tuk (a small, three-wheel taxi) to earn a living, while another was tragically injured in an accident that left her unable to work. Another daughter, meanwhile, whose husband found out that his mother-in-law was living with HIV, soon discovered her after a brief marriage.

The distressed mother tried to cope with her new life. But with no family or companions of any kind, her efforts to achieve normalcy were in vain. Nor could she find refuge in a new home in a different village – not after her deceased husband’s family followed her there to make sure that her story was known to all of her neighbors. She was then subject to attacks by local residents, who went so far as to burn her clothes as if she were some kind of disease that had to be purged.

It was not only her neighbors who passed judgment on her. Religious clerics and village leaders, who had once helped and supported her, stopped showing her any charity once they learned of her HIV status. She was convicted without having committed a crime – condemned, denounced and punished for committing no sin.

The pattern of cruelty followed her even when she sought help for badly-needed surgical procedure. When she did the right thing by telling doctors of her HIV status – so that they might take the necessary precautions before operating – she was met with the same, now-familiar hostility. None of the doctors would help her in the belief that, as an HIV sufferer, she was “already dead.”

The hapless woman eventually died of a gallbladder infection, an otherwise preventable death. But this wasn’t the real cause of her demise. This is the story of a woman who was condemned and abused by her family, society and those she needed most for help. Now she is gone – to place where she will hopefully find the mercy she deserved in life.