Angelina Diaz

Angie was born on July 24, 1929, to loving parents Jose and Angela Castillo. She was the eighth of ten children who occupied a charming white frame house on Saybrook Avenue in Los Angeles, California – a house which still stands today, looking much as it did those 92 years ago. 

Angie would describe her childhood as nothing less than magical. Even though she lived during the depression and WWII, she would only speak of those challenging times in American history as an opportunity to pull together as a family, count your blessings, and honor your country. Everything, even in the most difficult of times, in her view was a chance to grow in faith in God, and to develop the virtues of service and sacrifice. To be sure, the catch mottos she imparted to her children, such as “Bloom where you are planted” and “Apply yourself,” stemmed from those formative years, imbued with the optimistic wisdom of the Castillo family wafting thru the little house on Saybrook.

Angie’s nine brothers and sisters – Manuela (Nellie), Natalia, Mary, Genevieve, Raymond, Henrietta, Reynaldo, Irene, and Joe – were the stuff her dreams were made of. The elder seven doted on her, while the younger two adored her. And why wouldn’t they? A kinder and more giving person would be rare, if not impossible, to find. She only spoke of her siblings in the most glowing terms and remained lovingly loyal to them all of her days. They attended school together, graduating one after another from James A. Garfield High School. They enjoyed strings of weddings, baptisms, and birthdays, celebrating together as their family grew. Always together, marking the years. 

In 1958 Angie married William “Bill” Diaz. Their marriage was full of nothing but love and devotion. The two Los Angelenos married in a Roman Catholic ceremony on September 6, 1958 and remained in Los Angeles where they had six children between 1959 and 1969: Paul, Mark, Carol, Elizabeth, Kathryn, and Damien. In 1971, the first of Bill’s many assignments as an ATF agent took them to the magnificent San Joaquin Valley. There Angie would fulfill a much-cherished dream of sending her children to Catholic school. For the next nine years, Angie and Bill devoted themselves to supporting their children and their Catholic education. They coached, led scouting troops, fundraised, worked in countless parish ministries, and, of course, attended church every Sunday. Yet even with such an idyllic life in their little town of Clovis, Angie frequently reminisced about her time in L.A. as a youth and would return for family visits as often as possible. In the 1980s, Bill's assignments took him and Angie to Puerto Rico, Florida, and South Carolina. Angie loved the adventure of living in new places. And Bill was the love of her life, with whom she got to share it all with.

Sadly, in 1990 Angie lost Bill to cancer. In a short time she returned to the Southern California to the warm embrace of the Diaz and Castillo clans, settling in Riverside. In order to rejoin the workforce, she reached back to skills she had honed in Clovis as an office manager for a busy pediatrics practice and in Puerto Rico and as an administrative assistant at Honeywell. Her optimism and resilience were her defining virtues as she settled into her life after Bill. Angie landed work at the office of a Riverside horse training facility, a job she greatly enjoyed. By this time she was a grandmother, and loved visiting her grandchildren, and hosting them for visits at her lovely Riverside country house, sitting on a bluff above the Santa Ana River. A storyteller of great talent she delighted her little guests with the cautionary tales of the Brothers Grimm, recollections of her younger years attending concerts at the Hollywood Bowl or picnics at Griffith Park, and fantastical stories about the horsies at the track.

Thirty-two years have passed since she returned to Southern California. In those years she spent precious time with Bill’s family in Riverside and with her family in Los Angeles. She was cherished by them and her children in gratitude for the faith, love and kindness she showered upon each one of them. These sentiments were often expressed by Angie’s trademark formal blessing bestowed upon any family member before parting.

In the weeks before her passing, Angie would often say, “I want everyone in our family to keep loving each other.” To love like her would be a tall order for anyone, but in the end, it seemed as though she was pleasantly satisfied by the love she felt amongst her

kin. Satisfied enough, on that January day, to answer her Lord’s call home and to reunite with her beloved Bill.