3,500 in O.C. Take a Walk to Fight AIDS

Near the finish line of AIDS Walk Orange County on Sunday, Michelle Meyers held up the satin quilt she had stitched for her son, Randy, who died of the disease.

Against a field of blue, a shimmering white jet was bound for green satin palm trees and the rugged form of Hawaii’s Diamond Head, one of Randy’s favorite spots and the place where she and her family cast her son’s ashes. Below it was the word aloha .

“That was the last word he said to me,” the Fountain Valley woman recalled, her eyes brimming with tears at the memory of holding her 24-year-old son in her arms as he took his last breath on Aug. 31, 1989. “I’m so lucky to have had Randy in my life.”

Meyers, 49, was one of the more than 3,500 mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters-in-arms who converged on Mason Regional Park in Irvine for the fifth annual event to raise money and consciousness on behalf of people afflicted with acquired immune deficiency syndrome, which has claimed the lives of 1,146 Orange County residents since 1980.

The record crowd and the record $349,000 raised for this year’s 10-kilometer march is proof that public awareness has grown since AIDS was first discovered 10 years ago, organizers and participants said.

“But we have a lot further to go,” said Mathieu Pechholt, 27, who drove from San Francisco to support the Meyers family at Sunday’s walk even though he knew of their son only through close friends.

“People need to think about this as a universal disease, not just one that affects gays and (intravenous) drug users. The only way we are going to come close to fighting it is if people embrace that idea,” said Pechholt, a hospital laboratory supervisor who tested positive for the AIDS virus three years ago.

It was 10 years ago this month that the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta reported the first known cases of AIDS.

Since then AIDS has afflicted nearly 200,000 people in the United States and claimed the lives of nearly 106,000. Hundreds of thousands more are believed to harbor the dormant virus. And while the first cases were largely homosexual men and intravenous drug users, the disease is being diagnosed in more and more heterosexuals, women and children as it cuts a wide swath through society.

On Sunday, whether they walked the course, cheered on substitutes or handed water to weary hikers, attending AIDS Walk Orange County was a personal statement for most in the diverse crowd.

Placentia City Councilman John O. Tynes and his wife, Clairee, were there to boost the morale of 46 fellow church members walking Sunday in memory of the Tynes’ son, Bill, who died of AIDS at age 30 in 1987.

For the third year in a row, Tynes won unanimous City Council approval for a $2,500 donation to the Aids Walk. And Clairee Tynes has marched in each of the four previous AIDS Walks.

“I think the testimony of Christian people standing up in defense of those who are suffering is very important,” she explained, clutching the book she wrote about how the Tynes family coped with AIDS.

How they did it, according to “The Miracle of Bill,” was to close ranks as a family and care for their son, an artistic director of a New York City theatrical company. Even today, Clairee Tynes tells people that she has five children and that “one moved to heaven and has an unlisted telephone number.”

Sunday was Tom Anthony’s third AIDS Walk Orange County. He wouldn’t have missed it for the world, but being wheelchair-bound due to complications from AIDS, he had to watch from the shady sidelines as a surrogate walked for him.

“It’s so nice to get out of the house,” said the 41-year-old Costa Mesa man, a former Broadway dancer and longtime member of entertainer Debbie Reynolds’ nightclub act.

Even his sunglasses seemed to weigh heavily on his wan but still handsomely chiseled features. Yet Anthony made light of his illness with a bit of black humor and praise for his parents, brother and sister. “I’m really lucky because I’ve got everything going for me. . . . A lot of people with AIDS just don’t have that support.”

Leo Meyers, husband of Michelle and father of Randy, had just finished pedaling the course and was nursing a cold soft drink. He had dealt with the grief of losing his son, but he was at the Irvine park to give support to others who may not have found peace with their loss.

“Because we spent a lot of time with Randy at the last, we were able to show him we loved him,” said the 51-year-old electrical design engineer. “If you are close to them, you go through the pain day by day. You can be sad with them and happy with them.”

Many were at the march even though they had not been personally touched by AIDS.

The Bradford brothers of Newport Beach each donated $5 and raced the 6-mile course with their golden Labrador, Maggie, who was cooling off at their feet near the finish line Sunday afternoon.

“We’re here to support the cause and to raise money for funds to research the disease,” said 13-year-old Kyle Bradford. Neither he nor brother Mike, 17, know anyone with AIDS. But both said their mother and stepmother raised them to “support good causes.”

“And this is definitely one,” Kyle said.

AIDS Cases in Orange County

Total Cases: 1,798*

Total Deaths: 1,146*

Deaths in the first two months of 1991: 53

* As of Feb. 28, 1991

Source: Orange County Health Agency