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Shortly thereafter, John Bond, of Apple Valley, Minnesota, got a call that there was a kidney ready for him. He and his wife, Erin, had 10 minutes to pack before they were taken to chartered flight to Pittsburgh, and Bond was in surgery within hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Little by little, they were given information about the donor. At first, the Bonds learned that he\u2019d been a young, healthy Russian man. A few days after that, they learned he had been shot to death. They searched on Google and discovered it had to be Anton Kemaev.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kemaev had been set to return home this week, to be there to spend Russian Orthodox Christmas on Sunday with his family. Instead, his widow will return to their home later this week with his ashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Thursday, Bond met with Kemaev\u2019s wife at the hotel where he is recuperating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat do you say to someone who just lost her husband, whose kids just lost their father?\u201d John Bond asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amid hugs and translators he thanked her and told her she saved his life, and she said it was what her husband would have wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe will live on,\u201d Erin Bond told Kemaev. \u201cThank you for choosing to donate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe\u2019s very happy, and he\u2019s very happy for helping,\u201d said Vladimir Shlyakhtim, a friend of Anton\u2019s who served as translator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shlyakhtim told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that was Anton\u2019s last gift, to \u201cmake something good out of this nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Russian man who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Pittsburgh last month donated his organs \u2014 and the Army National Guard veteran who received his kidney gave an emotional thank-you to the man\u2019s widow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":59193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":101,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,25],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1351],"class_list":["post-28914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"4LHEWR7ZZZAHZFA5USOQ3LXIRI","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2018\/01\/05\/wife-of-russian-man-slain-in-us-meets-vet-who-got-his-kidney\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n