When my uncle realized he would never have children and pass on his name, I was bestowed with his middle name: Montague. Perhaps it was this name that formed the connection between us. Monty taught me to be ambitious and to embrace life, because you never know how much time you have left.

Even living with a death sentence like HIV, he was pursuing a master's degree in historic preservation from the University of Missouri and studied abroad in England, Ireland and Portugal. He refused to sit around and wait for HIV to take his life-- he chose to live.