By Angela Marshall
His sister has the boxes of photographs to prove it.
Putting pencil to paper Shapiro created the ultimate daily pick me up, giving himself something to look forward to every time the mailman arrived at his door.
After being diagnosed HIV-positive in the early 1990s, Shapiro bought a list of celebrity addresses and wrote letter after letter to his favorite stars. He sent more than 1,000 letters, each containing copies of his humor columns about living with the disease, and requesting an autographed picture. He received over 500 responses, some in the form of telephone calls.
A comedy writer, Shapiro wrote columns chronicling his struggle with the disease, which were published in various magazines and newspapers, including The Village Voice and Body Positive.
He wrote under the pen name Kvetch and entitled his first article, How does it feel when a Jewish Kvetch gets HIV.
Writing helped Shapiro fight depression and the correspondence from celebrities proved inspirational. How many others can say they have a signed letter from Mother Teresa saying she's praying for them?
Earlier this year, his sister Leslie Shapiro Greenberg of Rockville Centre began writing to celebrities too. She sent off letters to 100 of her brother's pen pals asking them to help pay tribute to her brother.
I got a 75 percent response rate, Greenberg said during an interview earlier this week.
Shapiro died in 1996 and Greenberg inherited his collection of letters and photographs. Some, such as those of Tom Hanks, Barbara Streisand and Frank Sinatra, hang on the walls of her Forestdale Road home. Others have spent the years since Shapiro's death packed in boxes.
Greenberg knew the photographs were meant for something better than that. So she's putting them out for the world to see.
A friend offered the use of his Chelsea store and on Saturday, Sept. 21, more than 160 of the photos and many of the letters, complete with inside jokes, will be put on display.
Fifteen of the celebrities Shapiro contacted agreed to lend their names as honorary chairpersons of the event, including Jason Alexander, Melissa Gilbert, Edward Albee and Kim Basinger.
In her letter to Shapiro, Mother Teresa sent him a rosary. Being Jewish, Shapiro decided to pass it on and mailed the rosary to Basinger who was pregnant at the time.
Greenberg was touched that celebrities like Basinger responded with statements like Of course I remember your brother.
They get thousands of requests, she said. He just really stood out.
Shapiro was featured in Faces of AIDS 1996, a piece Entertainment Weekly dedicates annually to notable people who've succumbed to the disease.
He was my only sibling and I miss him very much, Greenberg said, wiping away tears. She said she has received a lot of support from her husband and two sons during the emotional roller coaster of putting together this showcase.
Money raised at the show, called Reaching for the Stars: A tribute to Howard Kvetch Shapiro, will go to Rivington House, where Shapiro moved when he could no longer take care of himself.
When it became clear that the disease was taking its toll on her brother, Greenberg wanted Shapiro to move into a treatment center on Long Island, but in 1996 the only options here were nursing homes.
I was beside myself. I didn't know what to do, Greenberg said.
While her brother was receiving treatments at St. Vincent's Hospital, she asked the staff if they could recommend a place and that's how she found Rivington House, a skilled nursing facility for HIV/AIDS patients.
Shapiro, who valued his independence, didn't want to move into any institution, but within days of moving in he called his sister and said it wasn't so bad. It's like the movie Pleasantville.
Greenberg calls the staff that helped her brother die with dignity phenomenal and said, They gave him a really good quality of life.
To learn more about Howard Shapiro or Reaching for the Stars, visit www.howardkvetchshapiro.org. Tickets are $50 and can be purchased by calling (212) 337-5750. The showcase will be held at Basics Furniture, 92 Seventh Ave., between 15th and 16th streets, New York City.
