We are heartbroken to share the passing of our beloved mother, grandmother, sister and friend, Beatrice Mary Quarto Benham, OCDS. Bea passed on Tuesday, October 25th, 2022 at 84 years old. Services will be held in her memory on Wednesday, November 2nd at Queen of All Saints Catholic Church in Concord, California. There will be a recitation of the rosary at 10am, and the funeral at 11am. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to support the work of one of her favorite organizations: Food For The Poor, Bay Area Crisis Nursery or Saint Vincent de Paul at Queen of All Saints.
Bea was born the first child of Pasquale and Francesca Quarto on May 5th, 1938 in Bushwick, Brooklyn. She lived in a brownstone on Bushwick Avenue with her parents, grandmother and siblings, and told stories of the iceman and milkman making deliveries on horse drawn carriages. When the family outgrew the brownstone and moved to then pastoral Long Island, city kid Bea recalled being terrified upon seeing a cow for the first time and thinking it was a monster.
She went on to study Nursing at Seton Hall, and afterwards followed her family to Indianapolis, where she would meet her husband, James Benham. During his time in the air force, James fell in love with California and he convinced Bea to head out west with their children, where they would settle for the rest of their lives. Bea had an outstanding career as a nurse at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Martinez, and in retirement volunteered as a peer mentor for other seniors. She loved children and was Grandma Bea to many beyond family. She was a devout Catholic, a third order Carmelite, and lived the teachings of Jesus through her immense generosity and love. She will be dearly missed.
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