EXPOSURE TO LIGHT
"With Unending Grace"
Brian Peterson of the Minneapolis Star Tribune
VESELI, MINNESOTA
Doug and Nancy Simon of Veseli, Minnesota, celebrated the birth of their daughter, Candace, in June 1988. But their baby girl soon became chronically ill, unable to recover from common colds and sniffles. The following spring, her parents learned why. Doctors informed them that Doug had contracted the AIDS virus years earlier from a blood transfusion, and had passed it along to Nancy, who in turn passed it to Candace. Brian Peterson was primarily a sports photographer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, but his editors assigned him to the Simons’ story. It was his first documentary piece, and for the next six years, at least once every week, Peterson visited the Simons. He captured happier days, with Nancy and Candace, above, and was there for Candace’s funeral in 1993, and when Nancy died in 1996, left. Two other children, Eric and Brian (below, at a favorite fishing hole), were spared from the virus. Nancy’s last words to Eric were, “I know you’re going to be the best fisherman in the world.” Peterson, who is married with children of his own, never allowed the two families to meet. “That was my professional responsibility,” he says. “It really made it difficult. I had to grieve on my own."
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