Gloria Martha Balles

A year ago in March she celebrated her 74th birthday at Casa de Pico. She happily received greetings from many restaurant patrons as she was sitting at the head of the table wearing a birthday crown.

Gloria came to live with her "baby" brother Daniel and his family in April 2014. She became a member of the San Diego Zoo and went there frequently with her sister in law Maureen. She got a library card and checked out 8 picture books a month. She joined her brother at JC Penney salon for hair care, first with hairdresser Anna and later Olga.

She loved going on mini-vacations with the family to Palm Springs and LA. With Daniel, Maureen and Maureen's sister Theresa they would attend the Belly Up everytime Wild Child was playing. In June 2023 they sang the song "Gloria" for her during their encore. She talked about that for weeks!

She had plenty of puzzles to work on and coloring books. The family pets would lay next to her while she enjoyed working on her activities with the tv set to the Hallmark channel. Every summer found her in the swimming pool using a boogey board as a float. She was a daily Starbucks visitor with Maureen. Anyone who knows her knows she was a big Elvis fan. We taped his movies for her to watch and of course she had cd's to listen to. She loved sending birthday and holiday cards

to her friends Mark, Julie, Olivette and Theresa.

Gloria had a sweet spirit and was so loved by everyone. She is survived by her brother Daniel (Maureen), nieces Angelica (Deshan), Cristina, nephew Tony (Vanessa), their sons Santino, Mateo and Roman; and friends Alyssa and Cassidy, Theresa and her son Marcus, Olivette, Mark and Julie.