Not Enough Time to Be Fake: A Wellness Story You Can’t Measure in Metrics

When healing has nothing to do with labs, and everything to do with love, time, and truth. Imagine being young, bold, full of dreams—and then facing death alone. While giving the 2025 commencement address at Harvard University, Dr. Abraham Verghese told the story of a man in his 30s—an AIDS patient from a small southern town—who had left home years earlier, searching for identity and acceptance in a big city. He had lived hard, loved freely, and tried to outrun the shame, judgment, or silence he had grown up with. But life has a way of catching up. And illness has a way of revealing what matters most. When his partner died and his health began to fail, he returned to his hometown—not for treatment, but for connection. And surprisingly, what he found wasn’t condemnation. His family embraced him. They cared for him in ways that were gentle, generous, and unwavering. His final months, though filled with physical decline, were marked by clarity. Stillness. Forgive...