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Friday, February 04, 2000 Page: 2A
It began with a message, passed from a young boy to a grandmother who had
worked for a newspaper.
Christopher Robinson, a teenager from Mountaintop, wanted to tell the
truth. He wanted to reveal he had AIDS, and he wanted to do it in the paper,
for the world to see. “Christopher’s Secret,” the series that followed, told
of this remarkable boy’s inspiring journey.
It began with these words, published in the Times Leader August 20, 1995:
I am tired of the secret, he says.
Tired of excuses for why I take naps, for why I gulp pills and go to the
doctor a lot and sometimes don’t want to leave my room.
I am tired, he says, of lying to my teenage friends and watching what I say
and wondering what people would do if they knew.
“I am carrying a great burden,” he says. “And I am tired of it.”
Christopher Robinson of Mountaintop, lover of carrots and swimming and
Michael Crichton books; fan of the Redskins and the Braves and Sega video
games;
Christopher Robinson, who fights with his brother and worries his mother
and can’t wait to start eighth grade in just 10 days;
Christopher Robinson, 13 years old, has AIDS.
Until this moment, almost nobody knew. But the dark, looming secret had
grown nearly worse than the truth.
I can’t live this lie anymore, Christopher told his parents. I want to tell
my secret in the newspaper. I don’t want to pick and choose who to tell when,
to answer the same questions again and again.
“And people might learn from me,” Christopher says. “Learn not to be
scared of people with AIDS.”