To Be Human: Meet Juanita Bates Bonds

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Juanita Bates Bonds, a healthcare expert and owner of a rehabilitation hospital, grew up in a very small town in Louisiana. “I grew up in what we refer to as ‘the country,’” Juanita said.

“Now, the town itself was the country, but just like as you would relate to the movie ‘Little House on the Prairie,’ every time we got ready to go to the store, we considered that going to town.”

She was the first in her family to attend college, where she had running water for the first time. Her mother had a second-grade education, but made major sacrifices to help her children succeed, Juanita said. In 1999, when Juanita found success as a healthcare entrepreneur, she was able to give her mother the gift of running water by paying to repair and pipe her childhood home. “She could have done a whole lot of things, but she chose to stay home and raise us and make major sacrifices just so we could have some things. She couldn’t give us everything, but she made sure that we went to school, went to college,” Juanita said. “The attitude of privilege children inherit sometimes is what actually causes these conflicts in the world and the workplace. I’m always going to be humble. I’m always going to be kind. You know –unless you try to hurt or mess with my children or my mother.”

– Jennifer Warnick