Crash victim was ‘perfect mother’

Danette Goulet

As much as The Grant Boys is an institution in Costa Mesa, Beverly Grant

was the rock and cornerstone of her family.

Her son, Steven Grant, described her as the epitome of family values and

the best mother in the world.

Grant was on her way to Cairo with three friends on Sunday for a

three-week vacation when their plane, EgyptAir Flight 990, crashed 60

miles southeast of Nantucket Island, Mass.

The foursome flew from Los Angeles to New York, where they boarded the

Boeing 767.

The women were part of a group of 54 travelers scheduled for a tour of

Egypt planned by Boston-based Grand Circle Travel. They were to visit the

Great Pyramids, with stops at Giza, Luxor and Aswan. Then they were to

travel on to Israel and Tiberius.

At 82, Grant, who lived in Santa Ana, was full of energy and life, family

members said.

“My mother had so much vitality, such a zest for life,” said Bruce Grant.

“She was truly an independent person. She never wanted to burden her

children.”

Keeping with her independent spirit, Grant did not let her traveling

companions -- Judy Bowman, Sheila Jaffee and Tobey Seidman -- know how

old she was, Steven Grant said. She was the oldest of the group that

played cards every Thursday and would not reveal her age to them for fear

they might exclude her.

Her son-in-law, Randy Garell, said before her trip, Grant was so excited

that when he drove her to her friend’s house the morning she was leaving,

they were halfway to the door before realizing they were at the wrong

house.

Garell, who runs The Grant Boys gun and surplus store on Newport

Boulevard, the business that Grant’s husband began in 1949, described her

has the stereotypical Jewish mother.

“She worked with a broken leg and an injured back,” he said. “In that

way, she was a typical Jewish mother. She would rather sit in the dark

than call someone to change the light bulb for her.”

“She never had a complaint,” agreed her daughter-in-law, Elaine Grant.

“In fact, she just hurt her back recently -- and never said a word. She

took pride in that fact.”

Her pride and fire only continued to grow after the death of her husband

six years ago, said Jack Carver, a longtime friend and vice president of

the family business.

“With many people that age, so often you find that when one goes, the

other will often go within a year or so,” Carver said “And some do what

she has done and become more active.”

It was after her husband’s death that Grant went to the family and told

them she wanted to become more involved in the business. She started

working the next Monday, Carver said.

Grant worked five or six days a week in the office, counting cash, making

deposits, calling vendors with orders and any other task asked of her.

“You never realize how much somebody does until you have to plug up the

holes,” Garell said.

Despite a morbid superstition of wanting family members to take different

flights when traveling in case anything happened, family members said she

had no fear of flying.

Grant had been all over the world, Garell said. She went to China twice

and had traveled all over the United States and Great Britain.

But no matter where she was, in her heart she was with her family, Steven

Grant said. Grant had four children -- Michael, Steven, Bruce and Alexa;

and two grandchildren Bryan, 23, and Kevin, 20.

All of her children live near their mother’s Santa Ana home and would get

together every month for family dinner.

“Holidays were all at her house. The monthly dinners, we traded off,”

Elaine Grant said.

“She was always at home -- the matriarch,” Steven Grant added. “If you

could have a perfect mother, it was her.

“She was in the prime of her life,” he said. “I always said my mother was

never going to be an old lady -- now I guess she won’t ever be.”

Services have tentatively been planned for Sunday at Temple Beth Shalom

on Tustin Avenue.

The family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the

St. Joseph Hospital Fund, 1100 W. Stewart Drive, Orange 92868; or to

Heritage Point, 27356 Bellogente Street, Mission Viejo, 92691.