Garfield is nine today, and he has no idea that his life, like that of millions of other people around the world, has been touched by AIDS.

His father died from the disease a little over a year ago. His mother Sybil and his youngest sibling, five year-old Janice, are now infected with HIV. His eldest sister Michelle turned 18 yesterday, and even she does not know about the secret that their mother has kept for so long.

Like many couples, Sybil and her husband separated briefly. She believes it was after they got back together that she became infected, but she had no idea there was a time bomb ticking inside her blood until after she gave birth to Janet.

Her husband is long gone and now Sybil bears the burden alone.

The Observer first carried the family’s story a year ago when the mother of three asked that their real names be withheld to protect her children from the scorn and discrimination that is often heaped upon those living with AIDS. Last year, Sybil gratefully spoke of the help she had received from a nurse at Jamaica AIDS Support (JAS) who had ‘adopted’ the family.

JAS took care of the children’s school fees, a big break for the financially-strapped Sybil.

The challenges have become even greater for the family.

Earlier this year, Sybil’s doctor told her it’s time for her to begin taking anti-retroviral medication. She has chosen, instead, to spend what little money she has on medication for five year-old Janet. It costs her $6,000 every three months.

“I told my daughter that her liver and spleen are bad and that’s why she has to go to the doctor so often and get medication,” Sybil told the Observer on the way to her inner-city home.

For most of the year, Sybil worked one day a week. She earned $1,000 and struggled to make sure her family had enough to eat.

Now, she has managed to get two more days of work. But one job is so far away that transportation costs cuts her take-home pay by $200 that day.

The $2,800 she earns now is far from enough for a healthy family of four. It is almost impossible to sustain a family struggling with HIV/AIDS.

The deadly disease that attacks the immune system is not the only battle that the family has to fight. Michelle’s exam fees are due soon.

Sybil said she has already paid for four CXC subjects, but she still has to find $13,000 to cover the cost of three more. She has already been given additional time to pay, but the money is due by the third week of January.

In addition to the stress of battling HIV in secret, overdue exam fees and a paycheck that just is not enough, Hurricane Ivan also left the family with a damaged roof. Three months after the category four storm, a tarpaulin is still the only thing that protects Michelle’s room from the elements.

There are still water marks on the walls of the room and the wardrobe is waterlogged. The TV, one of the generous gifts from Observer readers last year, no longer works. Water seeped into it during the storm.

“My big daughter and I stayed in the wet house (during the storm), because we didn’t want thieves to loot us,” Sybil said.

“My church brother and his wife took the two younger ones. I got a $65,000 estimate (for material) to fix the roof and $35,000 for labour.”

But she will not be among those who will get help from the government, she said, as a team that visited under instruction from her Member of Parliament Phillip Paulwell told her there was nothing wrong with her roof.

While the family waits and hopes that they will miraculously find a way to fix their roof, HIV-positive Janet suffers from the damp inside the home.

“She also has asthma and when rain falls she gets a draft,” Sybil said. “Right now I owe the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) $30,000, because when the asthma takes her she goes there and gets the nebuliser and other treatment.”

Their life is far from the fairy tales that Garfield once believed in, or maybe still does, just a little.

Last Christmas, he asked for a book that told the rags to riches tale of Cinderella. The story proved, he said, that “even if someone you love is dead they and God are still with you”. His mother, ever the practical adult, said Garfield also needed a pair of size four shoes.

The Mother Goose fairy tale books, three pairs of size four shoes along with teddy bears and the now-broken television set – all given by Observer readers – are still in the humble home.

Two pairs of the shoes no longer fit Garfield. He’s much taller this year, but he hasn’t changed that much. He still closely resembles his mother; his dimpled face still brightens when he speaks and he still wants to be ‘a good policeman’.

This year though, Garfield doesn’t want a Cinderella book. He still huddles in bed and reads the old one.

Now, he just wants a bicycle.

Garfield may be blissfully unaware of his mother’s struggles and secrets; but his older sister Michelle appears to be worried about something.

“She doesn’t tell me when she has problems. But I know something is wrong, because she sleeps more. She’s depressed,” Sybil said.

A psychologist confirmed that Michelle is clinically depressed and has put her on medication – yet another expense that Sybil struggles to absorb.

She has found strength in God and gets a lot of joy from singing on the church choir. When she lifts her voice and it blends with the others, no one can tell that she is HIV-positive. And just for those few hours, she feels that she belongs.

– margaretl@jamaicaobserver.com