Fear to Fire

I did not want to face the fact that both my parents were now gone forever and all that remained of their legacy was me. . No human emotion could portray the loss I felt and still feel.

Fear to Fire: My Life as an AIDS Orphan, "a motivational and inspirational memoir, chronicles the trials and tribulations author Stephanie D. Castagnier faced during her tragic past as an AIDS orphan.

Her mother, Nancy, gave birth to Stephanie when she was only sixteen and her father, Richard, was eighteen. A charismatic, illiterate, and self-employed businessman, Richard was believed to be one of the largest drug dealers in North America. With hundreds of employees, he built a small empire spanning from South America to Canada all by the age of twenty-six. Back then, he enjoyed endless hours of partying, prostitutes, money, and cocaine, but along the way he contracted the HIV virus and infected Nancy. She died at the age of thirty-three when Stephanie was only sixteen. Richard succumbed eight years later.

Facing the world alone, Stephanie had two choices: follow in her father's footsteps of drugs and crime or honor her parents by finding something else-something more. "Fear to Fire" is the story of her courageous journey.