Grandmother in Forefront of AIDS Fight

Mary Etta Brown N'Jie of Johns Island, S.C., has been "living with AIDS" for 12 years. Although she does not have the disease, she has taken care of a daughter and granddaughter who both died of HIV/AIDS.

Granddaughter Megan Ashley Jewel Brown was born weighing 18 ounces. Her grandmother immediately gave two units of blood in the hope that the transfusion could wash AIDS from Megan's system. Megan was on a respirator in intensive care. N'Jie took Megan home on her first birthday and got her daughter Nicole, who also had AIDS, an apartment downstairs. "Thank God Megan stayed with us for 32 months. . . . She died at home. I wanted that."

N'Jie has since adopted two children who have the disease. Nearly 10 years ago she met Carrie, whom she has adopted, in the New York hospital nursery where she worked. "She was a sick, sick baby. . . . The mother was a drug addict and said she'd rather I have her." Then an agency asked N'Jie to take Marcia for one day, and she ended up adopting that child, now nearly 11. "No one wanted them, and I got attached to them," she said. N'Jie gives each girl eight medicines three times daily. Carrie also needs a tube feeding and therapy for her breathing at night.

"A lot of people ask me why I bog myself down with this. I don't trust anyone else with my children." N'Jie said. Today's AIDS medicines are wonderful, said N'Jie, recalling that baby Megan was one of the first to test AZT.

Patients need to understand the importance of taking their medicines in precisely the way prescribed because otherwise they won't work, she said. "This is not a game. This is a war on the body, and we are just beginning to know what is going on." Society hasn't changed as much as medications have, N'Jie said. "A lot of people think AIDS is a disgrace . .. But why should I be ashamed? [AIDS] is an everyday thing in society, and you can't pull the shades down," N'Jie said.

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