A Mother's Love and Memories
Before During and After AIDS
Written in memory of King Lee Kleski
King’s mother’s name is Joan Thomas Nelson. She and King’s dad, Ivan Lee Kleski has two other children Ivory Lynn and Lori Marie. They are younger than King. King’s family was an Ohio family with a long line of Polish and Swedish descendants on his dad’s side of the family. King’s mom’s side of the family is from Kentucky with Cherokee Indian, Welsh and Irish descendants. King’s mom and dad were the typical 1960s family. Ivan worked hard as a structural welder and Joan was a stay at home mom and housekeeper.
Joan has chosen to write about her son’s life. His early years and the years leading up to how he became afflicted lived and died from the dreaded disease called HIV/AIDS. Because she wants other people to read, not just about the dying from this disease but also about what it is like to live with the disease.
King Lee Kleski was born August 26, 1962, Joan knew from the beginning he was a special child, he always laughed, she loved him so much, he was her first child, she was always taking pictures of him the way you do with the first, it is all so new. She wanted to record every move he made. She loved him so much, they formed a special bond from birth and it is only something a mother can explain about a child she thinks is so special.
When King was a very young baby not long out of the hospital, she was always afraid of
hurting him. She used to have dreams about sitting on him or dropping him. These are probably pretty normal dreams for a new mother. She didn’t understand this at the time. It really frightened her. She was always very worried about him. She thinks the dreams are what made her so very protective of him, especially in his early years. She didn’t want to let him out of her sight for a long time.
Who could have known that as the years would pass, the fear of dropping him was not so frightening as the fear of losing him to the dreaded AIDS virus. The big worry in the sixties was fear of the big C, (cancer). King’s grandmother was diagnosed in the late sixties with cancer in almost all of her internal organs. She was one of the miracles of that age of the big “C.” She had a long drawn out battle with the disease but she won the battle. She remained a cancer free for many years. The Cancer returned along with Alzheimer’s to wage war with her in the early spring of the year 2000. She lost the war; she died July 17, 2000.
King and his grandmother left the family with a lot of the best memories anyone could have. King’s grandmother used to tell all the children some pretty tall tales about when she was growing up in the hills of Kentucky. Some were interesting some were serious and some were unbelievably funny stories but true, I think. I guess no one will ever know if they were true or not but it does not matter now because when they think of the stories, they laugh and the old saying is, “laughter is the best medicine.”
There are memories of caring, of sharing, making mistakes and having successes. Memories of love and laughter, there were lots of dreams, good dreams and bad dreams. It is really good to know we are not alone. That there is always someone we can count on. The miles can separate us from our loved ones, but we always know the one we can lean on when push comes to shove. The acceptance will always be there no matter what may come. There is no need to pretend to be something you are not. Just be yourself and assure your loved ones you are always going to be there for them.
King made all the family very happy, it was that smile he could give to everyone, when they looked at him he always had a smile, it was very hard to make him angry, if anything did make him angry, they knew it had to be something very wrong because it took a lot to upset him. He usually always turned the other cheek. He was smart; he was courageous and modest. He amazed everyone who came to know him.
