“I just knew he was gonna be OK. He was the miracle man.”
Marsha Bonds sadly recalls the day she learned that her husband of 40 years, Larry D. Bonds, was diagnosed with the coronavirus. Marsha tested positive first, on June 3. The next day, her spouse learned that he was also infected.
“Well, it’s you and me babe,” she said, recalling her husband’s words and upbeat attitude.
Both were confident they’d beat the virus. The couple had been vaccinated. Marsha Bonds likened her symptoms to a “bad cold.” Mostly, though, she just knew her husband would pull through.
In the early 2000s, he suffered a heart failure. For six months, while waiting for a donor heart, he survived with the help of a left ventricle assist device (LVAD), a mechanical device that pumps blood to the aorta and throughout the body.
On November 18, 2008, a heart became available from a donor, Tommy Quertermous, 37, who was killed in a farming accident. The operation was scheduled the next day, Nov. 19. It was Larry and Marsha’s middle child Marlin’s birthday.
“Larry died three times that day,” Marsha Bonds said, recalling the number of times her husband had “flat-lined” and had to be resuscitated before and during the operation. Hospital officials called the family, saying that he wasn’t expected to survive.
Marsha nicknamed Larry “miracle man” because he did survive and came home with a new heart and an increased passion for the sanctity of life.
Already an ordained minister at Abundant Life Fellowship Church in Florissant, Larry Bonds started preaching the gospel of organ and tissue donations. As a Mid-America Transplant Services (MTS) volunteer, he made it his personal mission to reach out to people, especially Black people, to convince them to donate their organs to save the lives of others.
He also founded a nonprofit organization, the “Larry D. Bonds Foundation 4 Life” in 2012. He wanted the agency, Marsha explained, to serve as “a liaison, advocate and mentor” that would provide physical and emotional support for pre-and-post-transplant recipients and donor families.”
The foundation established the “Tom Quertermous Memorial Apartment” to house families of organ recipients during medical treatments. In 2016, Larry created the “Two Men & One Heart” scholarship fund which awarded $500 scholarships each year in the names of his donor’s daughters, Logan and Jaycie Quertermous.
Marsha Bonds and the “miracle man” were planning to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary on June 6, three days before Marsha’s diagnosis. Unlike their humble 1981 wedding in her parent’s backyard, this event was to be an elegant, elaborate affair.
“I basically went from planning a wedding to planning a funeral.” – Marsha Bonds, wife of the late Larry D. Bonds
“Oh, we had a big party planned. It was going to be at the Norwood Hills Country Club. Everything was already paid for,” she recalled.
“We had a four-layer cake, grooms & bridesmaids. The kids were coming to town. We planned to have the wedding my parents could not afford 40 years ago.”
Although Marsha recuperated at home, Larry was hospitalized and was immediately put on a ventilator. His condition declined rapidly. His immune system was too weak to fight off the complications of COVID. Within a month’s time, Larry Bonds succumbed to the disease.
According to health professionals, a weakened immune system or other conditions such as lung disease, obesity, advanced age, diabetes and heart disease can put people at increased risk for coronavirus infection and more severe cases of COVID-19.
Marsha Bonds is still pro-vaccine, as was Larry before his death. Others in her family, Marsha said, also contracted the disease. She and they only suffered mild symptoms and survived because they were all vaccinated, she maintains. Because of his compromised immune system, however, Larry wasn’t as fortunate.
“I basically went from planning a wedding to planning a funeral,” Marsha lamented.
Although Larry’s body was cremated, Marsha Bonds and the couple’s three children, Nichole (Nichols), Marlin and Shannon Bonds are planning a memorial service at the end of the month to honor Larry’s life and memory. Marlin Bonds remembers the lessons his father left with him.
“He was definitely a disciplinarian. I was the only boy, but he taught all the boys who grew up under his watch to respect women, to respect my mother, to be a man of God and always take care of each other in terms of family.”
The Bonds’ youngest, Shannon, had similar recollections:
“Dad was an above and beyond type of person. He was a father to many, not just the three of us; be they relatives, nephews, anybody. He was loyal, honest and he taught us and others how to truly, genuinely love.”
Sylvester Brown Jr. is The St. Louis American’s inaugural Deaconess Fellow.