Benedicta Ferreira Carvalho

On the morning of Sunday, January 07 2024 at the age of 95 our sweet mother passed away at the Cooper Ridge Rehabilitation Center in West Jordan, Utah. Our mama , Benedita , Dona Ditinha , Bennie was born in December 25th 1928 in the city of Socorro- Brazil - to José Pires Ferreira and Maria Luiza Medeiros. When she was 16th her father passed away and to help her mother she moved to the big city of São Paulo to find a job and help her mother after several years she met our father Ernesto Carneiro Carvalho and they got married when she was in hers twenties - They had four children, Regina, Conce, AnaMaria and Daniel Alexandre - They lived in several cities, Nova Odessa, Campinas, Tatuí and Sorocaba moving to the USA in the summer of 90’s , finding a job at the same company working together until their retirement . Proudly they became American citizens. They served the LDS mission as couple in Recife - Brazil for two years coming back home they worked very hard to have the first Portuguese ward in Salt Lake City and successfully managed, today are 15 Portuguese LDS wards around the valley., several years later Father suffered from Alzheimer’s and he passed away at age of 85. Mother courageously continued living in Sandy , Utah all by herself always around her family her children and grandchildren gathering together for many celebrations and special events. She loves to travel, she visit several places around USA, Central America and she specially likes to visit Brazil to visit her sisters, nephews, nieces and many friends and also satisfy the longing for the delicious Brazilian cuisine food but after a while she always started to feel homesick and wants to come back home, she loved this country and she was so proud of the USA , always giving us a speech about being grateful and privileged of living here in America. Mother had a brilliant intelligent mind always updated about everything that was going in the world. She was a remarkable strong woman always fighting for her life and never giving up ~ We think of her as a “Phoenix “ bird part of the Greek mythology and many cultures such as Egyptian and Persian symbolizes life after, Sun light and overcome difficulties renewing her strength- she was our Phoenix. Mama loved every single country’s food and she was crazy about junky food and loved her Diet Coke and tamales - Her hobbies was knitting and crouche making babies shoes and hats to donate to the Primary Children Hospital, she also enjoyed to donate monthly the St.Jude children’s- she enjoyed gardening red roses was her favorite also she loved to color books and make bracelets. Mama was a private quiet person but was always there ready to help. She had six grandchildren and nineteen great grandchildren knowing her as vovó Bennie that speaks Portuguese and gives big chocolates bars. For the last four years mama lived with her great granddaughter of ten years old Aaliyah and they were best friends giggling, eating snacks, watching movies, taking selfies together and doing artwork, they have a strong friendship and love for each other, was a painful and hard time for both saying goodbye , it broke Aaliyah’s heart. On mother’s last hardest months having her health declining she fought a lot without stopping to regain and win her health amazingly she achieved her goal of completing 95th on her birthday Christmas Day gift and she also welcomed the New Year of 2024 . On her last Sunday before taking her lasted breath, she raised her head, she looked at the window to see the dawn where the Sun was shining on… Thank you mama for giving us our life’s, for teaching us perseverance and faith you will be forever in our hearts until we meet again. We love mama ~ ti amamos keep shining bright on us

Benedicta Ferreira Carvalho

December 25, 1928 - January 7, 2024