story of a brother dying of AIDS

His name is Son. He suffered seriously from AIDS, which was already at the final stage when he phoned me in the morning of the third day of this lunar new year. Now I still remember he asked me with a weary voice that if I could pay a visit to him as he was so lonely. He made me surprised when talking about his illness and how costly the treatment was.
Now he has passed away and I regret not having spent enough time and effort to support him during his most difficult time. I did know about his illness but I did not ask him much about his life in the past, why he was tempted by drugs and how he became a victim of the fatal disease HIV.
Until now have I realized he got really tough and unhappy life. He did not get on well with his family including his mother and other brothers and sisters. His mother got different husbands and he did not know who was his real father. His mother and his siblings did not love him as he wished. There were often separations among the members in his family. Feeling so unhappy, he traveled to the South and led an unhealthy and unconventional life. It was during that period when he became addicted to drug and later suffered from HIV.
I heard that he even got a terrible time living in the addiction avoidance camp. There he was treated very badly and lived in low conditions. He often had in his mind that the only way for him to be a real human was to escape from such hell. However, he found out that all of his efforts to get out of there was in vain. By chance, one day he picked up a piece of paper on the ground which contained some sentences not understandable but made him curious. He showed that paper to one of his friends in the camp who said that the words on that piece of paper were from a prayer of the catholic people. His friend was also a Catholic and he told Son to try reading that prayer everyday so that it might help him exit the suffering life. Somehow Son maintained doing that everyday throughout 3 months until one day, suddenly he went by a 4 meter-high wall in the camp and there was nobody around. Though he was quite weak but he tried his best to jump over that boundary and ran far away from it. It seemed to be a mystery for him.
He went a long way until he reached Saigon. There he found the way to a church and gave thanks to saint Mary whom he believed to let him out of the camp. He recalled a promise that he made with her which was that he would convert into a catholic if he could have escaped successfully. Immediately, he decided to turn into normal life, being a good person throughout the rest of his life but the first and foremost thing was to learn about Catholicism and become a Catholic.
I met him the first time in the cathedral of Hanoi when he was a catholic already and very enthusiastic in helping the parish pastor with artistic work. I became a friend of him and had time working with him in the church. I admired him of his patience and kindness very much during that time. It was pity that I was away from home and not go to the cathedral very often during a long time so I did not keep contact with him.
After nearly one year, I met him again in a terrible situation when he is quite closed to death. He felt lonely even when he was right there in his own house, being very near to his own mother who looked after him everyday. He felt that his mother just took care of him with responsibility, not with love. His friends left him, his brothers and sisters did not pay attention to him. His life became a tragedy until some priests and Sisters knew about him and made regular visits to his house and supported him not only by enhancing his physical strength but also by consolidating his spiritual life. He seemed to be more happy during those final days of his life as he found out that at least there were some people who could be considered as disciples of God still loving him and caring about him with all their simple and modest hearts. Those people did not know him before but they were sent to him by God who had known him long before he was born into the world and even loved him and being his real Father forever and ever.