In Memory of Marie Bond

DOB: August 31, 1960
Blessed: 1989
Spouse: Larry Bond
Children: Donald, Anne, Paul, Scott, Helen
Seonghwa: August 8 at 11:00 AM at Bay Area Family Church
WonJeon: August 8 at 2Pm at Lone Tree Cemetery at Hayward
Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88969272816?pwd=UkSKLwkP09XGO73QsIpWfyfTSwP7lx.1
Cards: Send to Lawrence Bond at 899 Lori Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94086

Marie Bond was born in Beirut, Lebanon, on August 31, 1960. Her given name at birth was Marie Therese Mikhael. Marie was raised in a devout Catholic family in the Lebanese Maronite tradition, which connects to the Pope and the Western world rather than to the Eastern church. Her father Elias was a bill collector for a Beirut accounting firm, and Elias knew every inch of Beirut city by foot, having to walk to many of his pick-ups. He was unmarried into his 30’s, so his parents consulted a local Catholic priest to help arrange a match. The priest knew the Abou Karam family, who lived in  Baskinta, a mountain village an hour’s drive from Beirut. Helene Abou Karam, Marie’s mother, was the youngest of six children. Elias was also the youngest of six, but Elias’s five older siblings were all sisters.

Marie is the oldest of three children. Her two younger brothers, Ibrahim and Fadi, are still living in Beirut. Marie went to a private Catholic school, but her brothers went to a public school because of the cost. Marie went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication at Lebanese State University, graduating in 1984.

Marie was and will always be deeply attached to her mother, Helene. Marie has many fond memories of her mother cooking for and entertaining her husband’s five older sisters, who were frequent visitors, all the more frequent because grandmother Mikhael lived with Elias and Helene from the beginning of their marriage. In Lebanese Maronite culture, the elderly care-giving duty falls on the son, and Elias was the only son. Living in Beirut was a bit of a sacrifice for Marie’s mother, with her care duties and being away from her family in Baskinta. Marie said her mother always bore everything with faith, love, and patience.

Marie also had many interactions with her mother’s family. The Mikhaels vacationed frequently in Baskinta, due to the hot and humid summers in Beirut, and also due to the fighting in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war, from 1975 to 1990, beginning when Marie was 14 years old. Marie’s uncles owned a three story home in Baskinta, and reserved space for Marie’s family to stay. Marie built probably her closest interfamily relationships with her cousins on her mother’s side, but it could be fairly said that Marie, or “Meemoo”, as all her family called her, was loved by all her aunts, uncles, and cousins on both sides of the family.

It was during the period of the civil wars in Lebanon, in late 1980 when Marie was on Christmas break from her college studies, that a life-changing event occurred. A young Lebanese man named Adel Jamati came knocking on the Mikhaels’ fourth floor door one evening, briefly looking to solicit donations for the new branch of the Unification Church that had just begun in Beirut through the efforts of French missionaries. Marie eagerly questioned Adel for more information about the group he represented. Adel only could give a brief explanation, but promised to come back later. The holiday season passed without a second visit from Adel, but a few months later, in Spring 1981, Adel returned for a second visit. This began a period of repeated visits.  Marie’s parents welcomed Adel and the other Unification Church members who visited, and gave full permission to her increasing involvement with this new movement.

Following her 1984 graduation from college, Marie moved in with Adel and his wife Pauline and, with her parents’ support, became a full-time member of the Unification Church. Adel was the director of the tiny new Beirut chapter of the church. Marie passed on her enthusiasm to her college friend Vera Sawaya, who also joined in Beirut in 1986. Marie and Vera worked in partnership in art and craft sales for these years, and Adel opened a picture- framing studio. All the while the civil war in Beirut continued to flare up at intervals. 

Marie was engaged to the American Larry Bond in January 1989, through the church’s arranged marriage program. Marie travelled by herself to South Korea, where she and Larry were introduced to each other by the Unification Church founder, Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

Marie returned to Lebanon, while her fiancée Larry remained in Korea, hoping to build a career there. Marie then was asked by the church’s Middle East regional leader Thomas Cromwell to be business manager of the Cairo branch of the Middle East Times newspaper in September 1989. Marie went to Cairo, again by herself, and began to take care of the logistics of the tiny office. She sold advertising, and managed the local office help. The weekly newspaper made a small foothold in Cairo, and job positions opened up so that Marie’s fiancée Larry could work there. Larry arrived in Cairo in early 1991.

Marie and Larry married in 1991 and became the parents of three children born in Cairo. Donald was born in 1992, Anne in 1993, and Paul in 1994. All were born on a Saturday, and all were born in the same hospital room overlooking the Nile in the Cairo suburb of Maadi. Following Anne’s birth, Marie retired from the Middle East Times.

In early 1996, the fighting in Lebanon had stopped, so Marie and Larry moved to the Beirut area near her parents, where their fourth child, Scott, was born in 1997. They then moved to the United States, where they settled in Sunnyvale, California, near Larry’s parents. Marie then gave birth to her fifth child, Helen, in 1998. 

As a young mother in the United States, Marie devoted herself fully to raising her children and supporting her husband. She held many part-time jobs in her early U.S. years, despite not knowing how to drive. 

After her children were all in school and she learned to drive, Marie got a part-time job teaching pre-school children for the city of Sunnyvale, which she held for over ten years. For the last fifteen years, Marie has been very active in the Women’s Federation for World Peace, and has travelled to their conferences in different parts of the country. 

From the very beginning, Marie devoted time to reaching out to neighbors, and built several relationships that have lasted decades. It was her greatest pleasure to invite neighbors and friends to afternoon tea or dinner, usually with a spread of Lebanese food. 

Marie began every morning with her Turkish coffee, which she always boiled with the grounds, and she always enjoyed finding good omens in the pictures formed by the grounds that stuck to the bottom of the cup.

Marie had three hallmarks as a wife, mother, and neighbor in her adopted country of the United States: love and loyalty to her husband and children, love and loyalty to the Unification Church movement and its founders, the Rev. and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon, and love for her native country of Lebanon.

Cards can be sent to Lawrence Bond at 899 Lori Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94086

Marie tells her story in a book she authored titled “Called From Lebanon”. The book was self-published in 2022, in conjunction with Twin Cedars Books, and is available on Amazon.