World AIDS Day was recognized at the Medical Center with the second annual candlelighting and remembrance gathering on Dec. 1. Dr. Stephen Gluckman, head of the Immunodeficiency Program, helped to organize the event, which was attended by physicians, physicians' assistants, pharmacists, ancillary staff, social workers and residents, as well as about 60 family members and friends of AIDS patients who died over the past year.

"We wanted to celebrate what they gave to us--unbelievably fine and decent examples of how to live and how to die, with class, style and sense of humor," Dr. Gluckman said in an interview after the event.

Many people don't realize, he added, that "most patients with HIV are alive for many years. Over those years, you really establish long-term relationships. You become good friends and become close not only with them, but also with their supporters and families. We thought it would be useful to the families and for us, too," to remember them on World AIDS Day.

The event at the Penn Tower Hotel included the reading of names of patients who had died and lighting 98 candles, one for each individual. During the commemoration, songs were sung by the United Hospitals Choir, composed of singers who work at various area hospitals. A resident in the Immunodeficiency Program played the piano, and poetry was read. In a particularly moving reading, some members of the group were unable to continue the poem, and others picked up their places until they, too, couldn't continue. People also spoke spontaneously about individuals who have died.

Another commemoration event, Dr. Gluckman said, will be held next year on World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, 1996.