Dear Friends,

The last time I saw my friend Larry was on Easter Sunday in San Francisco in 1983. I’ll never forget it–Larry had lost a lot of weight and had blotches of Kaposi’s Sarcoma on his forehead. I asked him, “What’s going on?” He said, “I have something called AIDS.” Just a few months later, I got a message on my answering machine that Larry had died.

After a couple of years, I left San Francisco for NYC with dreams of becoming an actor. Soon after I arrived, I discovered God’s Love We Deliver while working the lunch shift at Miss Ruby’s cafe. We’d get phone calls to prepare a meal. The meal was wrapped up and left at the bar. Shortly after, someone would come in and pick it up.

I watched this happen again and again until one day I asked the pick-up person what he was doing. The man explained that he was a volunteer with an organization called God’s Love We Deliver, delivering meals for people with AIDS.

I got the phone number for God’s Love We Deliver right then and there.

I’ll never forget what it was like to deliver to clients in those very early days. THe client would be waiting for me. Some of them were so weak they struggled to bring the fork to their mouths.

After a few months of volunteering, I stopped working at Miss Ruby’s to become a God’s Love staff driver.

So many people were terribly sick. We did our best to feed them, to keep their weight up. I started writing down the names of people on my route who died, but the list grew so fast, it broke my heart.

I lasted nine months on the job – the grief was too much. It was too difficult to ring the doorbell and hear, “I’m so sorry, Robby is gone.”

I kept God’s Love close to my heart. As a God’s Love delivery driver, I was able to help at a time when our dying brothers and sisters needed love and grace and dignity. I think back to some of the clients, and they would say, “Oh, it looks so good and smells so good.” And some of them were so sick they could barely eat.

For everyone who’s volunteered or donated, you’re doing life-saving, critical work. We are delivering love and nourishment every single day.

And that’s what you can do, this day, Giving Tuesday, or World AIDS Day. Help God’s Love continue to make a difference in the lives of so many people affected by serious illnesses.

Being of service changes lives. And it’s true.

Thank you for being a part of God’s Love. I know it’s changed my life.