On Mondy, March 8th of this year we had to say good-bye to Dr. Robert
Bondy, who had dedicated his entire life to the people of McKinney and other
local communities. Upon his
retirement from private practice, He began to volunteer at the Children and
Community Health Center (CCHC) from the clinics inception in 2004.
Dr. Bondy was a retired pediatric doctor from
Richardson,
TX. He has volunteered in the
Plano clinic for many years. Upon moving to McKinney
around five years ago he became actively involved at CCHC. Since then he has volunteered almost
every week at the Tuesday night pediatric clinic and for many years he
volunteered at both clinics.
Every week Dr. Bondy came into the clinic with a smile of his face and a song on
his lips. His zest for life and
caring for all the people around him made it a pleasure for all the volunteers
to work with him. For a man in his 80’s he was able to keep up at a pace that
was hard for many of us to believe.
He volunteered up to one month before his death.
Even the last day he saw the children at the clinic, he was not feeling
good himself and had his wife drive him.
He didn’t care about his own pain; he only felt the need to relieve the
pain of the sick children he was treating.
Dr. B, as the children referred to him, treated every child with respect, care
and humor. He always made them feel
that they were the most important person around.
If the child had a need for help more than the clinic could offer, he
made sure that they would be referred to the proper specialist. He often scheduled follow visits to
ensure that the recovery was complete.
When we found out that Dr. Bondy was in the hospital we asked the children to
draw a picture for him. The pictures
were put into a folder and given to Dr. B. and his wife, when he returned home. We had the pleasure of collecting the
pictures and reading notes they had written.
One that still is in my mind was written by the sister of one of his
patients. She said in such a
beautiful way; “Thank you, Dr. Bondy, for finding out what was wrong with my
brother; may God bless and love you”.
He not only touched the lives of the children he cared for, but also touched the
hearts of every volunteer that had the privilege of working with him. With Dr. B’s passing there will
always be a void in the clinic and in the city of
McKinney. But
we are better people today for have such a friend in our lives.
What can we say about Dr. Bondy. Plenty. And many of us that volunteered at CCHC (Children and
Community Health Center - Mckinney) thought we'd try to put some of our thoughts together in memory of this wonderful man.
Dr. Bondy was so loved by those who volunteered beside him and those
patients he saw. He has shown us to
be patient, caring, and to enjoy life to its fullest.
He started volunteering with CCHC shortly after it opened in August 2004. He was our faithful pediatrician
every Tuesday evening, without fail.
Several of us volunteers, were just so happy to see him every week, that we
needed to hug him. He welcomed our
hugs with his big smile.
He was a great educator with all the staff.
It did not matter to him, whether you were office staff, a nurse, student nurse or translator, he would always explain to you what was wrong with a patient and why. If he was stumped at any time with a
diagnosis, he would get a second opinion from other providers. He wanted to make sure he was giving
the correct diagnosis. He knew enough
Spanish to communicate, yet he would summon a translator to assist on giving the
patient a better understanding of all his or her information. He wanted to make sure the patient
understood what, why and how to take medications.
There are times that we’d be at the clinic late at night, and Dr. Bondy would
wait and walk the girls to their car.
He wanted to make sure that we felt safe walking to the parking lot. He
was a great gentleman.
There were times that he was waiting to see a patient, and in those times, he
would share a song from his era, a movie that he’d remember, he also shared
a picture he had found of his younger years, he would talk about his beautiful
wife as if he just met her for the 1st time, he’d speak of his
children’s accomplishments and how proud he was, and talk ecstatically about his
grandchildren.
Dr. Bondy, along with his wife Gabriella, have attended and contributed to
every single gala. He always had his
dancing shoes and dance the night away with all.
Of course, he made us aware that he had to talk to the boss.
Dr. Bondy has gone from this world and we will certainly grieve over his
absence. But, we will rejoice over
the good fortune of having known him and the spirit that he brought to all of us
and his family.
As we would wish him goodnight and look forward to seeing him next week he
would often reply in his own unique way:
“God willing and the Creek don’t rise”.