The Obituaries, by Ainsley Hlady

The Obituaries 

after the AIDS Memorial Quilt, National AIDS Memorial, San Francisco (USA) 1987 
​
From afar, the panels seem to blend into a cacophony of pixilated stories, the static on a television screen that fills the empty space between programs. They remain a collective, forever frozen through fabric and thread, their patchwork stories now united through art. The weight of their lives are translated through fifty-two tons and thousands of three-by-six panels. Each one provides enough space to fill a grave, to lay down on the homely quilt and fill the space once occupied by another. It's space enough to be seen but not heard. We have room for a name, year, perhaps a quote or two; we know these people through footnotes, through brief three-by-six windows into their lives. One panel, a vibrant, silky teal, consists only of a couple hand-stitched hearts and hand-written messages from family members. One note reads, I love you Daddy, with a little girl’s self-portrait drawn beside it. She is not alone; another panel, simple, sees a silver star on a light-blue background. One word is meticulously stitched above it: friend. Panels over we find a wall made from the same message, repeated eleven times—each meant for a friend, comrade, a previous teammate. They end with hope; until our journeys bring us together again. We only know these people as a moment, a fleeting burst of light, a match struck in the dark in an attempt to illuminate an ever-darkening world. They are held together not by suffering, but by an understanding.Their stories persist, though, the burn-marks on the pristine facade of the world. The discordant static blends together to create a chorus of fifty-thousand voices, all singing the same song: remember. 

Ainsley Hlady 
​
Ainsley Hlady is an emerging writer attending Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. She is majoring in English, with a minor in creative writing. She is currently the president of Flagler’s Sigma Tau Delta chapter and the current treasurer for the Flagler College Creative Writing Club. She enjoys writing poetry, as well as worldbuilding and Table-Top Roleplaying game design. When she isn’t conjuring new fantasy worlds to explore, she can be found lounging at home with her Chihuahua, May.