Bonita "Bonnie" Petrus

Bonita Godwin Petrus, also known as Bonnie, died suddenly on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 at the age of 63 in her home in Tucker, GA. She is survived by her sister, Merrie Petrus Harding, her brother-in-law David Harding, her nieces Merrie Grace Harding and Leah Bonita Harding and her nephew Dave Harding. A visitation will be held at Floral Hills Funeral Home, 3150 Lawrenceville Highway, Tucker, GA 30084, on Sunday, May 5, from 1 to 2pm, followed by a service celebrating her life at the same location from 2 to 3:30 pm. Bonnie will be buried next to her mother and father in Blue Mountain, Mississippi.

Bonnie was born in 1955 in Silver Spring, Maryland to George and Bonita Petrus, and moved to Orlando in 1958 when her dad began working at Martin Marietta. She grew up in Orlando and graduated from William R. Boone High School in 1972. She graduated from Florida Technological University (later named UCF) in 1976. She would boast she had two college diplomas, one from FTU and one from UCF! After graduation, Bonnie worked in Ruschlikon, Switzerland for two years before attending Emory University where she earned her Master’s degree in Library Science in 1979. She began working at AT&T after graduate school and was a Senior Software Engineer with AT&T when she died. She took several leaves of absence to work again in Switzerland and the Czech Republic. She has lived in Tucker, Georgia for the past 30 years, a community she loved and enjoyed.

At 6’4” Bonnie was hard to miss, but if you knew her, it was her engaging personality that would end up standing out the most. She loved people. She loved getting involved, helping strangers and her many friends in unique ways and had the gift of quickly turning strangers into friends. Hand writing personal notes, caring for her cats, and creating beautiful crafts were some of her favorite activities. Her two nieces and nephew were her pride and joy. She had a way of making others feel comfortable with an intuition to know what someone needed to hear to lift their spirit. Bonnie loved the Lord Jesus Christ and spent a lot of time reading, praying and paying attention to her spiritual life. Bonnie would not want us to be sad but would want each of us to live with love for one another and to be full of compassion and kindness.

In lieu of flowers, please consider giving online in memory of Bonnie to Water is Life Ethiopia at www.waterislifeethiopia.org or by check to P.O Box 540318, Orlando, FL 32854. Bonnie’s well will provide safe drinking water to an entire village and opportunities for girls to attend school rather than spending their day collecting unclean water.