Jason Lemay and Raven Alexander lived together in the Dodson Hotel on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside until their move to Winnipeg to try to rebuild their lives.
Jason has been living with HIV for the past 10 years. He contracted the virus sharing needles in Winnipeg. After learning of his illness he wanted to disappear into the crowd. Like so many others, he was drawn to this Vancouver neighborhood, where an estimated 1,900 out of about 17,000 residents live with HIV or AIDS.
Raven suffered a serious brain stem injury in May, 1978, as a result of a violent sexual assault. She is now legally blind and has difficulty speaking and taking care of herself.
Jason and Raven moved to Winnipeg in 2008 to try to get clean and reconciling with his family but months later they failed at both. They both moved back to the Eastside, where they found each other in 1999, and were together until his death.
