I read this article about Ruth Coker Burks who cared for people with AIDS in the 80s/90s, and cried a lot reading it. She was a wonderful, compassionate woman, who cared for many a dying person when their families wouldn't.

She had a cemetery plot in which she buried the people who's families had shunned them. The people with AIDS who were cared for by her lived an average of two years longer, because, as she believes, she loved them like they were her own children. She didn't wear any gloves like others did when caring for these sick people (unless there was broken skin), and then, years later, after a stroke, stepped up for children that were facing trouble at school because they might be HIV positive.
It's a great read, well-written and sincere, and an important part of history.