In The Absence of Angels by Elizabeth Glaser and Laura Palmer This is the autobiography of Elizabeth Glaser. In 1981, she gave birth to a daughter, Ariel. She lost a lot of blood and had to be given a transfusion. The blood she was given contained the deadly HIV virus. Before 1985, blood was not screened for the virus. Not a lot was known about AIDS at the time. Elizabeth Glaser passed HIV on to her daughter through breast milk. Later, she passed to her son in utero. When they were diagnosed, the Glasers could not come out to the world because so many people would ostracize them if they knew. Ariel Glaser died at the age of 7 years and nine days. She might not have died had drug reseach gone faster. After her death, Elizabeth Glaser decided to help in the movement to further research on pediatric AIDS. She found out that there was no such movement, and she founded the
Pediatric AIDS Foundation. This book is also a history of that foundation. IN 1992, she gave a
speech to the Democratic Convention, on Pediatric AIDS. This book was written in 1990 and 1991. Elizabeth Glaser died of AIDS in 1994.
This is not a happy book.
Thoughtful reading.
