This was a really surreal and personal week for me at my internship. It was probably my favorite week there because I found so many things that were interesting to me. I also rediscovered Gong Fu Tea and spent a ridiculous amount of money there, not that much really but a lot for tea. On Tuesday I went through the personal papers collection I am processing and found almost an entire box devoted to AIDS in Iowa from the 1980's. I found this extremely fascinating especially since anyway who knows me knows I go absolutely crazy for Angels in America by Tony Kushner. AIDS wasn't a huge deal for me growing up since I was born in 1990 in rural Iowa, but I do remember hand-outs and different things about what kids in my class weren't supposed to do to protect ourselves from AIDS. And I remember learning about it later in elementary school and how it could actually be dangerous and some of the reasons why. I, of course, didn't learn about the breakout until later in high school, and I don't think I really understood the weight of AIDS until I read Angels in America.
But this box was amazing. I don't think I've ever really considered what AIDS was like in Iowa, it seems like something that happened far away in New York or California. But that's not really true, it did effect Iowa. The materials I found belonged to an insurance company and it was obvious they were concerned about what AIDS meant for insurance. Some people didn't think those with AIDS should have insurance or couldn't be insured for their illness. It was really enough to make you sick reading some of the different comments people made. I think I looked at the box for about 45 minutes and it was an eye opening experience.
But nothing was as eye opening as yesterday. I had a little down time after finishing a box of death certificates and I decided to go in the system and see if I could find any of my relatives. I check three counties and in the last one I looked at there were two people with my last name. The county was the county my dad and grandfather grew up in so I just nodded and thought that made sense, then I went on to my other work not thinking much about it. I texted my dad to let him know, and he sent me a text back asking if they died of natural causes. I said I thought so but since I didn't really look that well I couldn't be sure. I returned to find that one was a baby girl who lived only a day, and the other was a six-year-old girl. I found out that the baby girl was actually my grandpa's sister, and when I looked at the maiden name I recognized it as my great-grandmother's maiden name. My great-grandmother died this past fall and I remember hearing that she had a daughter who died but I didn't make the connection until my dad said it. It was just amazing to me that I work in this place every week and then here sitting in front of me is a little piece of my own past. That was really special to me.