Janice Langbehn made national news two years ago when she wasn’t allowed to be with her dying partner of 18 years, Lisa Pond, at Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital. Lambda Legal later sued JMH on behalf of Langbehn and the couple’s children.
Saturday night at a Lambda Legal sponsors’ reception in Fort Lauderdale, Langbehn met the Jacksonville man whose life was saved as a result of Pond’s sudden death from a brain aneurysm: Jerry Lawrence, who received Pond’s heart two days after she died.
“This is the best outcome I could hope for,” Langbehn said Saturday upon meeting Lawrence and his wife, Maxine. “Lisa is inside of him.”
Langbehn, who lives in Seattle with her teenage children, Danielle, David and Katelyn Langbehn-Pond, will also attend a Lambda Legal fundraiser 5 p.m. Sunday at Bonnet House Museum and Gardens in Fort Lauderdale.
Tony Timiraos, a Lambda Legal national leadership council member, will be honored at the Bonnet House reception. Timiraos is also chief financial officer of Broward Community Foundation.
For ticket information about tonight’s event, click here.
Below are pictures of Saturday’s Lambda Legal reception at the home of Dan Clancy and Paul Lefcort. (Click images to enlarge.)
All photos by STEVE ROTHAUS / The Miami Herald.
Janice Langbehn, left, with Maxine and Jerry Lawrence.
The Langbehn-Pond children: Katelyn, 12, David, 13, and Danielle, 15.
Sponsors’ event co-chair Peter Pileski, right, and his longtime partner, A Chorus Line co-director Bob Avian.
Lambda Legal national Executive Director Kevin Cathcart, Terence Caldwell of the group’s Atlanta office and Harry Harkins, a former Lambda Legal board member.
Sponsors’ event co-chairs Kent McIntyre and Peter Pileski, and honoree Tony Timiraos.
Host committee members Ron Ansin, Tony Timiraos, Jim Stork and Peter Pileski.
The Langbehn-Pond family, Maxine Lawrence and Jerry Lawrence, and Kent McIntyre. “It’s sacrifice like this that made it possible for me to be here today,” Jerry Lawrence, 59, tearfully told the crowd.
Kent McIntyre and Tony Timiraos.
Comments