by joe eskenazi
staff writer
Beatrice Simon may not have been very artistic, but she did have a particular skill for drawing people in.
The longtime Lafayette resident could extract a complete stranger’s life story while standing in line at the bank. She and her husband, Aaron, would go off on trips alone but end up invited to dinner by three or four couples every night.
“She endeared herself to people. She was truly interested in people. She was so outgoing and vivacious. And she knew the best places to go, the best food to eat, anywhere she want. She really was a connoisseur of life,” said her daughter, Claudia Simon.
Beatrice — “Auntie Bea to the world,” as Aaron Simon called her — died Monday, April 23 after a brief battle with kidney failure. She was 82.
Aaron and Beatrice met in Oakland Temple Sinai’s confirmation class in the 1940s when they were 15 and 16, respectively.
“She’s six months older than I am,” he said. “Six months out of the year she was my old lady.”
Though the couple moved from Oakland to Lafayette 44 years ago and lived almost within walking distance of Temple Isaiah, they continued to attend the synagogue of their youths.
Aaron worked at the family hardware store in Oakland until his retirement, while Beatrice threw herself into a number of volunteering positions. She served on the national boards for Brandeis University Women’s Committee and was president of local chapters of Brandeis Women, Hadassah and ORT. She also served on the national board of the Campfire Girls and the United Way.
Beatrice was also a tireless volunteer for events within the local Jewish community and could be counted on to bring vats of fudge, mandelbrot and, especially, potato salad to lifecycle events (“She was the potato salad queen,” said daughter Joanne Main, who added that she’ll miss being yelled at in the kitchen by her perfectionist mother).
But Bea Simon wasn’t just the proper little Jewish lady with a ready pan of kugel for any occasion. She was also a top-notch collector and teller of filthy jokes.
“One great thing I could always count on when I went home was that I’d have my dose of endorphins for the month, because we’d be laughing so hard,” recalled daughter Caryn Simon.
“We used to embarrass other people in restaurants. We’d be howling and crying with laughter and they’d be looking at us like we were some other kind of animal. My mother knew how to have a good time. No, more than that, she knew how to celebrate life.”
She also knew how to leave it with dignity. Doctors discovered Simon’s kidney failure in January, and, after initially undergoing dialysis, she opted to cease treatment and accept life’s terms.
“That was a very brave moment in her life. And she gave us such a gift at the end. Many people die of a heart attack and they don’t know when their last day will be. But the last three months, as hard as they’ve been, have also been filled with a lot of sharing and quality family time,” said Main.
“She still creating those times for us, even in her death.”
Beatrice Simon is survived by her husband of 62 years, Aaron, of Lafayette; her daughters Caryn Simon of Santa Cruz, Claudia Simon of Sacramento and Joanne Main of Atascadero as well as a pair of grandchildren. Simon is also survived by Erica Merovich of Sonoma, whom she informally adopted when Merovich’s parents died when she was in high school.
Services were held Thursday, April 26. Donations in Simon’s memory may be made to the Beatrice Simon Memorial Fund, Brandeis National Women’s Committee c/o Marilyn Teplow, 1805 Otis Drive, Alameda, CA 94501.
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California