On World AIDS Day, dozens gathered in the cold at the New York City AIDS Memorial in Greenwich Village, listening as names of the dead filled the park.

For Valerie Jimenez Reyes, who has attended the vigil for decades, reading the names brings her back to a moment she’s never forgotten.

“In 1989, when they told me I was positive, they also said, ‘Get your things together because you’re not going to watch your son turn 2 [years old],’” Jimenez Reyes said.

Instead, her son Joseph Jimenez is turning 38.

“It means the world to me that my mom is still here,” Jimenez said.

For organizers, the day is about the people who survived and the thousands who didn’t.

“World AIDS Day isn’t just a commemorative day. It’s a call to action,” Dave Harper, executive director of New York City AIDS Memoria

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