Excellent movie based on true story. I love it! Roxy Ventola McGrath died of complications due to AIDS on November 14, 1994. Survived by her husband Matthew McGrath, her parents Esther and Salvatore Abramo, her brother Jack and by merlin the beagle.
Roxy made us promise to keep fighting. She told Mary to continue to be loud and rude and in people's faces! She told her to keep doing AIDS activism and AIDS work in whatever capacity that she could be effective for as long as she is healthy enough. Roxy tried to comfort all her HIV positive friends by telling them not to worry, that science would find something that actually worked by the time it was their turn. Roxy wanted all her friends with HIV/AIDS not to be afraid of dying. She said "It's not so bad, well.... it's bad, but it's not as bad as you think it's going to be. It's not as scary as you think it's going to be." Roxy was a great advocate for peer counseling and peer support programs as you can see from her agency affiliations listed below. She would often remark about how she hated the "neggies" (a term she used to describe HIV negative people) trying to tell people with AIDS how they should feel or what they should do and how nice they should be to their care providers. She hated it when negative people would try to hone in on peer support groups to "observe" or offer "pity". "No neggies allowed!" she would say, "this is about us". The 1994 movie described the events which led to the deaths of her husband, Vinny, and infant daughter, Miranda Rose. They both died from AIDS in 1991. In 1993, Roxy was remarried to AIDS activist, Matthew McGrath.
Amy Madigan played the part of Roxy and won an Emmy for her outstanding performance. In her acceptance speech she gave tribute to the Ventola family and mentioned that Roxy had since passed away. Roxy's play, "After the Bomb" about a post-AIDS world, was produced in the spring of 1994 at Open Fist Theater in Los Angeles. She also performed in the Michael Kerns play, "AIDS, US Women: Silent NO More." She was: President of the Board of Women At Risk, a support service for women with HIV/AIDS; a co-founding member of Women Alive, a peer group run by and for women volunteers with HIV/AIDS; a founding member of Friends for Life, a support service for heterosexuals with HIV/AIDS; and an active member of of ACT UP/LA. In 1991, Roxy was a staff writer for the sit-com, "Sunday Dinner," produced by Norman Lear. She worked as a reporter/producer at WNET in New York from 1973-77. She created a pilot project for PBS on working class America called "US". She moved to Los Angeles, and worked at KNXT and KCET as a magazine show producer. Her journalism awards include a local Emmy for Best Documentary, "Art Therapy", and an award from Radio 8 TV News Association of Southern California in 1978.
