Dr. Joel D. Weisman died at 66 on Saturday. Here is the obituary in the Los Angeles Times.
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Here is a story the LA Times or anyone else didn't say.
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Dr. Weisman was one of the founders of Pacific Oaks, where Mark and I met Dr. Gary (still my and now Ed's Doctor). Dr. Weisman's team made life better and easier for many may many of my friends. And continues to make it better for some of them.
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After Mark died, and the hoopla died down and Dr Gary had me over to his house to sit around the pool and cry it out... Joel and his boyfriend Bill comforted me, held me, said it was okay and life would be better again some day.
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Dr. Gary, always ! but especially during those few moments, was just friend Gary. Joel was just a friend of Gary's and a great guy. Bill, his boyfriend, was (is) Bill Hutton - the original Joseph from J and the Technicolor Dreamcoat -- one of the first boys I ever had a crush on. And the four of them (including Gary's bf at the time) got me through some of the worst weeks of my life.
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His obituary, truthful, honest and respectful, doesn't do him justice. He wasn't just an amazing doctor who started the fight against aids. He was also the nice guy bringing margaritas to me by the pool and letting his boyfriend - someone I had a crush on 20 years earlier- joke and laugh and helping me live again.
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And so, the big agnostic, say a prayer for him. If ever anyone deserves heaven it is Joel.