At first, AIDS was little understood except that a number of patients, mainly gay men, prostitutes and drug addicts, suffered a terrible, difficult death.
“It was a very scary time for health care,” Millage said. A young nurse in the 1980s, she went on to become a registered nurse certified in AIDS treatment. No health professional wanted to care for the patients in the beginning, and most of the patients were too weak to work and did not have health insurance.
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One such end-of-life service was for a young woman who was a drug addict and prostitute. “Despite her lifestyle, she was unique in her own way and would warm the heart with her stories and humor. She had been in prison and had AIDS, and the only food she received was pancakes because the pancakes slid under the prison cell door. Her funeral service was simple and small,” Millage said.

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