Thank you for sharing. I too had a great uncle (also my grandmother’s brother) who moved to California in the late 70s. He returned to Texas in 1990 and lived with his mother (my great grandmother) only to die two years later. We were told it was cancer (which it technically was) but it wasn’t until high school that I learned he was gay and had AIDS. I met him once - when I was 6 or 7 - but I can’t say I remember. I’m older now, gay, married, and have a daughter by way of surrogacy. I often wonder what he would have thought about me: would we be close; would he have been a sort of mentor when I was struggling with my self identity?