I started writing my blog, Aydan's Road to Recovery about my son, Aydan's regression into autism following vaccination in 2009. I would put my heart into every post not knowing if a soul was reading any of them. Once I got a facebook account, joined a bunch of autism and anti-vaccine groups, I started to get some attention... And by 'some', I mean, about once a month I'd receive a message that someone liked my blog.. It was kind of a slow start. Of course being a busy mother of 2, I wasn't writing often but still.. It was slow and mostly I wrote for me.. My own catharsis.
In 2010, I received a facebook friend request from a guy called, Liam Scheff. Today I sit on nearly 5000 "friends" but at the time I was probably just shy of 200 and I still took the time to check each one out before accepting. We had one mutual friend, a fellow anti-vaxxer and he seemed to have a media following. He had a bunch of stuff on his wall about the HIV fraud which was news to me.. I was intrigued.
I accepted his request and didn't see much from him until a few months later, he made a shocking announcement that his best friend and partner of 7 years, Helen had passed away sudden due to a brain aneurysm. I think she was in her early 40s. I don't remember this part but he would later tell me that I sent him a note offering my condolences.
A month or so later he wrote and said he had been reading my blog and wanted to invite me on his radio show. I was very green and had done radio only about once or twice before. I was excited and nervous. I accepted and looked at his blog to find he was a REAL writer... a REAL journalist, had been in the trenches, under cover for his ground-breaking piece "The House that Built AIDS" on how pharmaceutical companies were experimenting on orphans using re-branded chemotherapy and calling it "AIDS drugs", it was a heart-breaking story... One of many Liam wrote about and experienced.
I felt out-matched, that this guy was too big time for me and my little mommy blog but he said he liked it. He said I was a real writer and should probably write a book, he even offered to help if I gave him editor credit. I should have taken him up on it...
We hit off right away. He became a very close friend and over the years the friendship grew stronger. We introduced each other to our own friends and around us built an anti-vaccine, natural health, conspiracy realist, tin-foil hat wearing tribe.
In 2011 he was very instrumental in Virstyne and I starting, Truther Talk. Liam started calling himself the Conspiracy Realist as an alternative to the ad hominem insult 'Conspiracy Theorist' and Virstyne had the idea to turn it into a t-shirt. He wanted the t-shirts for the Health Freedom Conference he was attending in the next couple of days, so she rushed a design while living overseas in Taiwan, I took it to a t-shirt printing shop and shipped it overnight to Liam. He sold a bunch that week but we haven't sold much since. We still have quite a few, in fact.
Over the years he proved to be a solid friend that I could count on to be a straight-shooter while maintaining a loving, accepting attitude. So often I would think he would be hard on people and at the same time so sensitive himself. He was probably the smartest person I have ever met and one of the funniest. He could be serious and often was but his humor was infectious.
At the beginning of our podcast, Virstyne and I wanted to interview people we knew. He was one of the first and ended up being on our show more times than I can remember. Sometimes he appeared as himself but quiet often came in disguise. He did impressions on our show of Morgan Freeman, Christopher Walken, Liam Neeson, Ron Paul, Woody Allen.. To name a few. He did the voices for all our commercials.
This one is worth a listen, fast forward to about 10 minutes: Truther Talk Ep 56: The Return of the Conspiracy Realist!
https://soundcloud.com/user-820574312/ep-56-the-return-of-the-conspiracy-realist
Liam passed away last April after having a medical mishap at the dentist.. yes, I know, the dentist.. It was a shock even though he prepared all his closest friends for this day.. It still felt and feels wrong. Following his death, I made a video reading one of his final posts.. 'Just in Case'. It's a beautiful piece, close to sublime...
Just in case by Liam Scheff:
Anyway... I miss my friend and hope do more of these essays to honor his legacy. In the meantime, please check out his book, The Official Stories:
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Stories-Counter-Arguments-Culture-Need/dp/147756134X
You won't regret it.
Other citations for this article:
The House That AIDS Built
Liam Scheff: http://www.altheal.org/toxicity/house.htm