Becky Benvenuti Memorial Fund and Family Support

Hi my name is Kevin Kim and I fundraising to help the Benvenuti family. I've been friends with the two Benvenuti boys since high school. I don't know a more loving and welcoming family then the Benvenutis. For more than a decade they've been in my corner with love and support and I would love to return the favor.

On May 9, 2023, the Benvenuti family lost a defining part of themselves with the passing of Becky Benvenuti. Her passing was due to complications of stage four lung cancer that was discovered a month prior. The weight of grief felt by her death is a direct reflection of the height of love felt by her life. It is through the pain of her absence that the true joy of Becky can be understood.

For 62 years, she was an endless source of pure love which she expressed in so many different ways. She loved as a sister, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, an educator, a friend, a smiling stranger.

There are so many ways to describe Becky’s character but the one that feels to encompass her best is kindergarten teacher, which she was for 15 of the 25 years she taught. When I think of a kindergarten teacher, I think of someone who teaches you how to love all the best parts of life and prepares you for all the difficult parts. Someone who offers both protection and fun, whose only motive is to better you. Becky was the kindergarten teacher that you would want for your kids now and your younger self then.

There was no one better to have in your corner and support you than Becky. And she took no time off when it came to it. Till her last days, even when she was sick, she spent her time and energy worrying about those around her.

it’s hard to imagine how a person could have the energy to be so nurturing to so many people. But it makes sense when you understand a key aspect of her, which was that family is everything. She had a strong definition of what family is and that definition alone made even impossible things doable.

Becky made the world a better place because there were no strangers. if you were lucky enough to have known her, you were family and as a member of her family you know that everyone is family. So even if you are a complete stranger and didn’t know Becky, I would argue you still did in a way. Because she would’ve loved and cared for you as if you had always known each other. Because everyone has a Becky in their life, a second mom.

Her youngest son John said it best, “She was so proud of her family and wanted everyone to experience that…She opened her home to anyone who needed to feel family and felt her life’s work was to provide that comfort.” And as someone who spent more than a decade walking in and out of the Benvenuti House, I can attest to that.

The magic about that house is that you are treated like family from the first time you walk in, and will be treated like family for the rest of your life, regardless of when or how many times you walk in again. There is a warmth that could convince you that you also live there but there is also an enthusiasm that makes you feel like you're there for the first time .That magic is Becky’s doing. And since Becky’s passing, I still feel that when I walk Into that house. It’s not the same but it’s being redefined in ways she would be proud of.

Grief is the most human experience we have. It makes us fall apart but it also teaches us how to put ourselves back together. While our worlds stop when we lose one of our own, but the world outside doesn't. I hope for nothing more than to give this family the space and support to pick up the pieces in peace.

And so the goal of this fundraiser is to not only send Becky off properly, but also to keep and support what we have left of her, her family. While she may to be with us physically, there are physical manifestations of her love walking around, smiling and laughing. They even have names. There’s Tom, her husband of 33 years. There’s Todd and Sue, her brother and sister. There’s Nicole, Anthony and John, her loving children. There’s Saxon, Lennox and Carter, her cherished grandchildren, who will miss her most. And then there’s a bunch of us stragglers that she took in and loved like her own.

Rebecca Ann Benvenuti was born January 6, 1961. She grew up in Costa Mesa, California and lived with her family in Huntington Beach, California. She was many things and all those things were loved and will be greatly missed.