Watch Larry & Evelyn’s conversation with The Villages Health:
Where everybody knows your name, as the familiar song affirms, that’s the place you want to go. This is especially true when it comes to healthcare. After all, quality care is dependent on a care team’s ability to listen to, understand, and get to know their patients. Michigan natives Larry and Evelyn Boman have learned this truth firsthand.
The Bomans moved to The Villages in 2010. Shortly after, they became patients of The Villages Health. Not knowing what lay ahead and how cancer would invade their lives, they would see that choosing the right healthcare was foundational. The decision would alter their lives, secure their longevity, and shape their future.
A Testimonial
Nestled on a quiet cul-de-sac in The Village of Bonita, the Bomans sit side by side on the sofa in their sun-washed living room. Eager to share their testimonial, they smile and occasionally pause to fight back tears as they take turns telling the story. For all its ups and downs, it is a tale of hope and serendipity. Evelyn wears a colorful top emblazoned with the words, “Simply blessed,” a phrase that for her, is more than mere words.
“Creekside saved my life,” she says. “I am a pancreatic cancer survivor.” Evelyn describes how in 2023, she and Larry sat down with Nurse Practitioner Jenna Richardson. It was Larry’s visit, or so they thought.
“Jenna knew us so well that she turned to me and said, ‘Why are you so yellow?’ Now that says a lot for a nurse practitioner, for any doctor, to say that when it’s not even your appointment,” Evelyn said. “With that, (Jenna) sent me for blood work. And from there, she called for a CAT scan (medical imaging), and that’s when they saw the tumor. They truly saved my life.”
In an instant, retirement life would lose its leisure. Larry and Evelyn’s days, now cluttered with surgical appointments, became tenuous and uncertain. Having a care team they could trust, who could bring levity to their situation while offering wisdom and support, was paramount.
After a series of complex surgeries, Evelyn says she endured 11, three-day sessions of chemotherapy, and 28 rounds of radiation. “But here I am,” she asserts, smiling. “We had angels all around us.”
In addition to the Creekside Care team, Evelyn credits church friends, members of their social clubs, and their unwavering faith in God, for helping her and Larry manage.
“I would have one good week, and then I would have chemo week, and that would just knock me out.”
Resting her hand on her husband’s knee, Evelyn turns to Larry and says, “My rock, my strength. He was there for me while he was fighting his own battle too. He had seven surgeries on his eye in Gainesville and I had mine in Tampa. We got to know (interstate) 75 really well.”
Post chemotherapy, Evelyn saw her care team every month. “Dr. Wood or Jenna would see us just to check in on us, just to say, ‘How are you feeling, how is this, how is that.’ We didn’t know that even the slightest little potassium shortage was something we should think about. And they would be right on it. I would have to get booster shots.”
As the Boman’s lives now yield to its former pace, you’ll find them tending to their garden and cruising in their “Grabber Yellow” Mustang, top down to feel the breeze. In these carefree moments, they can’t help but count their blessings.
And while some might call a health crisis unfortunate, Larry sums it up differently.
“It’s a great experience to have a medical team over you, taking care of you, that looks at you like more than a number. You’re a person. And they’re just so loving, so caring… It’s incredible.”
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