Our Mom, Katherine Mary Benda, died peacefully surrounded by family on the morning of Nov. 22, 2023.

Mom, who dedicated herself to helping others in every facet of her life, is now with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. She is dancing the “Cotton-Eyed Joe” with her love, our Dad, Stanley, and sharing laughs and hugs with her daughter Barbara, and many other family and friends.

Mom was born on June 12, 1936, in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. She loved growing up on the Canadian prairie and would regale us with stories of her childhood. One of her favorites was driving around with her Uncle Gus in his truck, a stick shift that she also learned to drive.

Mom’s family immigrated from Greece, and she would proudly carry her Greek heritage throughout her life, especially in the kitchen, where she would fill our house with the smells of Greek cookies and pastries like baklava. Her Greek Easter bread also was an annual treat.

After graduating from high school, Mom wanted to be a nurse, and she attended the University of Saskatchewan in nearby Saskatoon. It was the start of a professional and personal life that strove to help others. She also met many friends at college, relationships that she kept throughout her life.

She would graduate from the University of Saskatchewan in 1959, and it wasn’t too long before she decided that winters in a land where sub-zero temperatures were the norm weren’t in her future plans.

Mom liked telling the story of how she saw an advertisement for Pismo Beach as a vacation spot. Clearly, California was the place to be.

Mom made the move to the Golden State with her close nursing friends. They decided to put down stakes in Santa Barbara, where she would meet her future husband, who had also escaped the cold winters of Chicago to move to Santa Barbara.

Mom and Dad married on June 10, 1961. Their oldest, David, was born in 1963. Joanne followed in 1964 and Barbara came along in 1965.

Her nursing career brought her to hospitals and schools, where she spent several years as the school nurse for elementary schools in the Goleta School District. But it wasn’t until she started working for Santa Barbara County as a public health nurse that Mom found her true calling.

Her work, along with her team, brought much-needed care and education to county residents, especially the economically disadvantaged.

Both Mom and Dad retired in 1991 and enjoyed many, many years traveling, which included summers in North Battleford; gardening and catching up with childhood friends; and meeting new friends.

They would spend their autumns on the Big Island of Hawaii, a place Mom and Dad had fell in love with.

Retirement wasn’t always easy. Mom beat cancer in 2009, and then she helped care for her daughter Barbara, going with Dad out to Virginia to help her youngest and her family before Barbara passed in 2014.

Mom and Dad were married for 53 years before Dad’s passing in April 2015. Mom would move with her daughter Joanne and her family to Hawaii after Dad’s passing. It was a dream come true for Mom, who had always wanted to live on the Big Island.

Katherine Mary Benda is survived by her children and their spouses David and wife Marguerite, Joanne (Chew) and husband Tim; her son-in-law Jim DeLaurier; and by her grandchildren Jake, Zoe, Crosby, Grace, Faith and David.

A memorial service is planned for this summer in Hawaii, where mom will be interned with Dad at the veteran’s cemetery in Kona.