GRAY — Theresa Rose Gonzalez Diaz passed away Monday, Aug. 21, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. She had the victory because now, without a doubt, she is looking down from Heaven on all of her family that she has missed for the past several years.

She was born Nov. 24, 1927, in Clearwater, Calif. (now known as Paramount) to Manuel and Manuela Robles Gonzalez. She was the middle of 13 children, having seven brothers and five sisters, all of whom have predeceased her.

As she grew up, she helped raise her younger siblings which forged a fierce sense of responsibility and maturity at an early age. Those qualities set the stage for a successful career as an executive secretary. In fact, she started working at U.S. Army headquarters the day after her high school graduation. She then became a secretary at the Burlington Mills Fabric Co. where she would have to walk a mile to catch a trolley to work. She then became the secretary to the mayor of Paramount and moved up through local government to become the secretary to the superintendent of schools.

In the early ’70s she moved to the community of Prescott, Ariz. where she became secretary for Prescott Community College. She then moved onward and upward to Washington, D.C., where she became the secretary to the president of AARP at the Pentagon. She stayed there until her semi-retirement when she moved to Maine and worked part time for the State of Maine Attorney General’s office.

She was also a very adventurous person. While working at the Prescott Community College she went on several field trips with the school, including hiking and a white-water rafting trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. She was very proud of owning a Ford Courier pickup and used it to collect various desert stones to decorate around her Prescott home.

She loved traveling. She was very proud of her trip to Spain where she met up with relatives and visited the family castle. She traveled back and forth between Maine, Arizona and California to visit and live with family, finally settling down in Gray, where she spent the last several years living with her daughter, Toni, and her husband, Bob.

Teresa had two children. Her daughter, Anntoinette (Toni) and a son, Chris, who predeceased her.

She is survived by her daughter, Toni and husband, Robert Balfour of Maine; six grandchildren, David and his wife, Lori Shaklee, Michael and wife, Agata Diaz, and Renée Diaz, all of California, Rob and his wife,Tracie Balfour, of Maine, Tim Balfour of Rhode Island, and Tawnya Hoyt of Maine. She is also survived by several great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews.

She had a blessed life indeed and will be deeply missed.

Condolences may be expressed to the family at www.FuneralAlternatives.net.