AIDS Part 1


Testing the Human Spirit

A blood transfusion in 1983 brought the AIDS virus into the lives of the Simon family , infecting Doug Simon, and then his wife, Nancy, and then their youngest child, Candace, while sparing their two older sons, Brian and Eric. With the nightmarish discovery, the Simon’s uncomplicated lives in the small Minnesota town of Vesili would change forever.

I first met the Simons in the winter of 1991 and began a six-year documentary that would record their daily lives as they struggled with the virus that would eventually destroy their family.

In the course of those years, young, healthy bodies wore out. Candace died in the summer of 1993 after a long and painful fight, just three days before her sixth birthday.

Go to AIDS Part 2 for second part of slideshow.