It was June 18th, 1984. To most in this small town, a day like any other.
Except for Adolf Köhler, the town's mayor.
Adolf was mostly a calm, collected man. And when I say mostly, I mean all the time. There was no thing that set him off, he didn't lash out at people nor did he cry. He hid his emotions and acted professional, like any mayor should.
But that all changed when he met his lover, a local drag queen, Dzionizy Warazówski. He fell in love with the Polish man, and he loved him like he never loved anyone before. Up until then, of course, he was in denial of being gay. He would have never let anyone know, especially not his extremely homophobic parents, who may not live in this old town, but the news would somehow get to them. After falling in love with Dzionizy – or as everyone called him, Jude – he was no longer embarrassed, or ashamed. He loved that man with his whole heart, and would do anything for him.
Even if that meant missing meetings just to stay with him in the hospital.
And that's exactly what Adolf did.
AIDS, or as everyone called it, 'gay cancer', was a disease, a virus... Something that people just couldn't figure out. Everyone knew what it was doing, and how many gay men were dying because of this virus, but no one except medical specialists and, obviously, gay men, cared enough to do anything about it. The government didn't give enough money to study AIDS, and so more and more people got sick and died.
No one knew how it spread so quickly. Maybe it was sexually transmitted, or through any bodily fluid- people just didn't know. Not even the doctors who put all their time in trying to figure it out. It took time. But the more time went by, the less hope people had.
Dzionizy was in the hospital for exactly two weeks now. After suffering a terrible weight loss a few months back, the small, fragile man only got worse and worse day by day. The purplish-black spots on his skin wouldn't go away, they just got bigger, and with time, more started to appear. It was hopeless, there was no cure. All the men had the same symptoms – flu like symptoms at first, with nothing that bad, maybe a headache. Then those symptoms go away for a while, but things only get worse. But after some time, they'll start being tired all the time, with fever and severe diarrhea. And, of course, extreme weight loss. And those spots... Those goddamn spots that Dzionizy had all over his body, even on his soft, feminine face.
They tried everything. A healthy diet, all kinds of medicine, even chemotherapy, but nothing worked.
And Jude was starting to lose hope. Even him, the most optimistic and sweet man you'll ever meet, even he was starting to lose hope.
Everyday, he saw Adolf there, looking at him with sadness and pain in his eyes, and he couldn't help but blame himself. Blame himself for not being strong enough, for letting the man he loved see him like this, for.. For everything that was happening to the two of them. What if the German was infected as well? What would he do then?
And he prayed. He prayed to God for another year, another month, what the Hell, even just another day. He prayed for Köhler to be okay. He needed him to be okay. He just wanted him to be happy. He always wanted him to be happy, and he couldn't bear seeing the usually stoic man so incredibly worried.
But Adolf wasn't just worried. He was absolutely destroyed. He only thought about Dzionizy and no one else. Only his beloved Dzionizy. And although he spent every second with him, he knew this wasn't going anywhere. He knew there wasn't a cure. He knew he would have to say goodbye eventually, he'd have to let go.
But honestly? He didn't think he could.
It was June 18th, 1984. It has been exactly two weeks since Dzionizy Warazówski, a local popular drag queen known as Jude, and the mayor's lover and partner, was transported to the town's hospital, and the tall German was still by his side. It has been exactly a week since Jude lost all hope. And there has never been a moment where Adolf would leave his loved one's side. Not a single moment.
