My dear friend, Rhonda Lynn Latorrey Schultz, was born and raised in Binghamton, New York. Rhonda once told me that Rod Serling of "The Twilight Zone" fame was from there, also. She was a deeply religious woman who trusted that Jesus Christ was her Lord and Savior. Rhonda also had a great sense of humor, even when facing the difficulties that life threw her way. She contracted HIV circa 1988 while giving mouth-to-mouth resusitation to a friend who had fallen and busted his face open and stopped breathing. This act of heroism came at great cost, but she never regretted saving her friend's life. My Life Partner, Mel Johnson, met her in 1992 at an HIV support group meeting and they became the best of friends. She jumped into HIV activism and spoke frequently to church and business organizations. The vast majority received her with open arms, but the church she belonged to wouldn't let her speak because they said she was "pro-Gay". I guess they thought it was the duty of every heterosexual to hate homosexuals, but Rhonda didn't feel this way. She felt like she received the emotional support from this small group of Gay men that she didn't feel like she was getting from her family. She was a great pillar of strength to me through the death of my Life Partner in 1994; a debt which I will never be able to repay. I stood by her and tried to be as helpful as I could be in the remaining years that she had left to live. She passed away peacefully in 1998. She was survived by her husband Larry, her daughter Angela, her son Christopher, and two grandchildren.
My dear friend, Rhonda Lynn Latorrey Schultz, was born and raised in Binghamton, New York. Rhonda once told me that Rod Serling of "The Twilight Zone" fame was from there, also. She was a deeply religious woman who trusted that Jesus Christ was her Lord and Savior. Rhonda also had a great sense of humor, even when facing the difficulties that life threw her way. She contracted HIV circa 1988 while giving mouth-to-mouth resusitation to a friend who had fallen and busted his face open and stopped breathing. This act of heroism came at great cost, but she never regretted saving her friend's life. My Life Partner, Mel Johnson, met her in 1992 at an HIV support group meeting and they became the best of friends. She jumped into HIV activism and spoke frequently to church and business organizations. The vast majority received her with open arms, but the church she belonged to wouldn't let her speak because they said she was "pro-Gay". I guess they thought it was the duty of every heterosexual to hate homosexuals, but Rhonda didn't feel this way. She felt like she received the emotional support from this small group of Gay men that she didn't feel like she was getting from her family. She was a great pillar of strength to me through the death of my Life Partner in 1994; a debt which I will never be able to repay. I stood by her and tried to be as helpful as I could be in the remaining years that she had left to live. She passed away peacefully in 1998. She was survived by her husband Larry, her daughter Angela, her son Christopher, and two grandchildren.
