Patricia Grace Hornbrook Bond

The aboriginal people of Australia believe that a person passes from the body into Dreamtime when breathing stops. In Dreamtime a spirit is free to roam the world as the transformation of flesh into spirit, which never dies. It can hunt, fish, sing, dance, and do all it once did. We can’t see spirits with our waking eyes, but sometimes we can see them with our dreaming eyes. We all belong to Dreamtime.

I believe this is accurate and like to think of our mother this way. Nevertheless, when a mother dies there is a hole in the world.

Patricia Grace Hornbrook Bond (October 24,1925 - August 10, 2025) passed away peacefully at home in the presence of her daughters Susan and Rebecca. She was 99 years old. She tried her best but didn’t quite make it to 100.

Pat was preceded in death by her siblings Frank, Hal, and Sarah, her husband (divorced) Dr. James Bond, and all her closest friends. She was the youngest, and the last of her generation of the Hornbrook family.

Pat is survived by her children Susan, James, Annell, Rebecca, and Lara, along with their spouses Gail, John, Lee, and Geoff. She is also survived by her grandchildren Jessica and Alexa Bond, Dane Bridges, Lauren and Blain Bridges, Alli Bridges Mindham, and her great grandchildren Tannin and Leona Mindham, and Vivienne and Estelle Bridges.

Pat lived a long and interesting life. She grew up in Kokomo, Indiana, and was a graduate of Earlham College, majoring in Spanish, becoming conversant in French and German as well. Later, she acquired a Master's in Gerontology and managed Friends House for many years, a Quaker retirement community in Maryland. After retirement, she served as president of the HOA where she lived for many years. Pat traveled the world with her husband Dr. James Bond and later with her grown children and other travel companions. You may have seen her: that engaging woman enjoying conversation and Dubonnet speaking français formidable at a café in Paris, never guessing that it was Pat from Kokomo.

Pat was a capable pianist who played mostly classical music and the odd show tune from South Pacific or the like here and there. She was also skilled at the easel, cats and kids being a favorite theme. Literature, music, and art were at her core, with the Dutch master Frans Hals serving as her greatest inspiration. Never one to keep her talents to herself, she ushered in with her children a new generation of artists, poets, and thinkers, who will surely keep her entertained from below as she makes Dreamtime her new home.

In addition to artistic pursuits, Pat was an avid tennis player and fan, coming from a family of competitive players.

Growing up in the Great Depression and World War II, she had the bedrock middle American values of fairness and equality in her genes. Her generation forged the New Deal and defeated the global fascist wave of the 1930s and 1940s; Pat’s friends and neighbors stormed the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima as testaments. She was also an outspoken champion of civil rights and put herself in harm’s way organizing lunch counter sit-ins at Denny’s and registering voters in the dangerous times of the 1960s South. She was brave, not fearless: qualities this world needs now more than ever.

In Dreamtime, one’s spirit can enjoy the blessings of a life free of the body. I believe this is true, and when I dream, I can sometimes feel the edges of the deep architecture of things. So, when you settle in Mom, drop by in a dream sometime. We are going to miss you here. Until we meet again, we will fill your place at the table with talk about jobs, kids, news, memories, and all the commotion of daily life, those small pleasures that turn big over time and taste sweeter every season.

And one day, once upon a time to come, we will be together again in Dreamtime.
Love forever…

A service will be held on Saturday, August 23rd at 1:00 PM at the Sandy Springs Friends Meeting House, 17715 Meeting House Road, Sandy Spring, MD 20860, (301) 774-9792, https://www.sandyspring.org/contact.  A reception will follow the service.  The tradition among Quakers is to sit in silence and speak as the Spirit so moves.  We welcome people of all traditions and persuasions to join us in remembering my mother, Patricia Bond.

Flowers for the service may be purchased for delivery from:
MY ENCHANTED FLORIST
804 Olney Sandy Spring Rd Sandy Spring, MD 20860
301-774-0190
https://myenchantedfloristmd.com/
** Please note for deliveries flowers must be purchased by Wednesday August 20th

Charitable donations in Pat's memory may also be made to: Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières - https://give.doctorswithoutborders.org/campaign/687007/donate