Soon after Caleb Davis' mother died in 1992, activist and registered nurse Helen B. Bentley walked into the distraught man's office at the Coconut Grove Family Health Center.

''I know you just lost your mom,'' Bentley told him. ''I want you to know that I am adopting you as my son. I'm here for you, now you just keep on keeping on,'' she said, according to Davis.

In 1996, the center was renamed in honor of Bentley, who died this September at 93. On Sunday, the nonprofit Helen B. Bentley Family Health Center will host a memorial service in honor of its much-beloved namesake.

''She was like that with others, too,'' said Davis, now the 37-year-old center's CEO. ``She went out of her way to offer love and comfort and support to people.''

A stickler for civic involvement, Bentley founded the Coconut Grove Negro Women's Club about 50 years ago and led a troop of Girl Scouts during the days of segregation.

''Back in those days, everyone raised everyone's children in the West Grove,'' said Barbara B. Jordan, a mortician who currently works as a principal's assistant at MAST Academy and was a member of Bentley's troop. ``She helped mold the lives of many young women.''

Joyce Price, who works at the clinic and was one of Bentley's sisters at Chi Eta Phi, a nurses' sorority, said her friend gave her all for the community.

''I vividly remember going to clean the graves at the Charlotte Jane Cemetery,'' she said.

Bentley helped found the clinic in 1971.

For its first 23 years, the center, whose funding sources include state and federal grants, the United Way and Jackson Memorial Hospital, occupied a cramped building at Virrick Park.

In 1994, it moved to a 24,000-square-foot facility with 22 exam rooms at 3090 SW 37th Ave.

Thousands of low-income Grove residents of all ages have passed through the clinic's doors over the decades. A staff of board-certified doctors and nurses care for patients who have diabetes, are pregnant or show up with colds, asthma or toothaches.

Apart from her nursing work, the barely five-foot Bentley loomed large in the civic community of Village West. She was known to aggressively push local officials for improvements in services to residents of what was known as the West -- or black -- Grove.

''She was small in stature, but she carried a big stick,'' said County Commissioner Barbara Jordan, who worked with Bentley in Miami-Dade's Community Action Agency.

The agency serves low-income people, providing assistance with employment, housing and disabilities and programs for seniors and children.

''By no means was she a pushover,'' Jordan continued. ``Ms. Bentley was very cordial and congenial but a strong-willed, consensus builder, committed to advocacy.''

The memorial service will be 6 p.m. Sunday at the Helen B. Bentley Family Health Center, 3090 SW 37th Ave., across from the Douglas Road Metrorail Station parking lot. For information, call 305-447-4950.

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