14/08/2026
AIDS Quilt UK have recorded testimonials telling the story behind the panels. One of the testimonials from this panel is a poem remembering Tony:
'Just another day toying nervously with a ring on my finger,
Death hangs in the air, the smell forever will linger.
Friends who care know not what to say,
Family carry on, to them, it's just another day.
It's for the best, no more pain, he's in peace,
These are the people who knew you the least.
Black car comes, box onto plain and ugly,
No pink does it show.
Follow the leader, blind leading blind,
To a place where they burn some of our kind.
Pounding of feet from people who mourn,
My heart fills with sorrow, hatred, and scorn.
A figure dressed in black speaks, and I shed a tear,
No kind loving words, no music to hear.
No trace of my friend, a love I once knew,
Just emptiness, nothing here to remind me of you...'
This is panel 5 of 42
You can listen to the rest of this poem and more testimonials of commemoration on youtube channel.
The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt is an integral part of social history, remembering a generation of loved ones lost during the epidemic in the 80s and 90s. Each individual panel commemorates someone who died of AIDS and has been lovingly made by their friends, lovers or family.
The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt Partnership is a coalition of 7 UK HIV support charities, including Positive East, working together to find a permanent home for the UK Quilt, to conserve it and to ensure it is put on public display as often as possible. The panels are archived here at Positive East.
