To the Editor:

Re “End in Sight for AIDS, New York Declares” (news article, Oct. 3):

I read with joy your report about Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s announcement that New York is on track to end the state’s AIDS epidemic by 2020. This news brought me back to an earlier chapter in my life — one filled with too many funerals for a person in her 20s.

It was the 1980s. I was living in Washington, and just coming out of the closet. I watched, first as a mysterious illness took some of my best friends, and later as the terror of AIDS accelerated the gay civil rights movement with unimaginable force and speed.

In retrospect, the pain from that time is what deepened my gratitude for those who devote their careers to curing disease. Though often derided, the biopharmaceutical industry is full of scientists and researchers whose work has led the way to eradicate or prevent disease.

This is what motivates me and many others to work in health care. So that when you, or I, or someone we love is affected by disease, the conversation is about treatments and cures, not last words and funeral arrangements.