How many times have you sat close by while someone has died?

Vicki Smith has had that painful, existential experience nine times, she said.

“There’s never a day I forget about that,” Smith said. “You realize how fragile things really are. Without God in my life, I could not do all the things I do.”

Camas resident Smith is the longtime leader — usually official, occasionally informal, always crucial — of Martha’s Pantry, Clark County’s homegrown food bank and community center for people with HIV/AIDS. When Martha’s Pantry launched in 1986, AIDS was a full-blown health emergency for the gay community, and an almost certain death sentence.

Fortunately, Smith said, that’s no longer true. Because HIV is now a chronic but livable condition — and because hunger and need are more widespread th

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