Teresa Ann Thompson died on January 19, 2022 following an auto collision that also took the life of her big brother, Tony Ruiz. She is survived by her husband, John Thompson of Placentia, her daughter Josephine DiCesare (Dominick) of Lancaster, brother Ernie Ruiz of Elko NV, and sister Mary Guilliams of Knoxville TN, as well as a multitude of loving nieces, nephews, and cousins. She is predeceased by her parents and her brothers Raymond and Tony.
Teresa was born to Josephine and Anthony Ruiz on April 11, 1955 in Los Angeles. In the early 1960s her father transitioned from the Los Angeles Police Department to the U. S. Department of State, and they were sent to live in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, which is where Teresa learned Spanish by the sink-or-swim method. The family also served in Bolivia before returning to the United States in the 1970s, living in the Washington D.C. area where Teresa attended Georgetown University. Around 1978 Teresa’s father retired and they moved back to California, buying a home in Placentia.
Teresa finished her degree at Cal State Fullerton and went on to earn her Master’s degree in Linguistics. She worked as a Spanish translator in the Pastoral Care departments at St. Jude and St. Joseph Medical Centers, and later worked as an administrative assistant in the St. Jude physical therapy / pain management department.
In the early 1980s intrepid Teresa traveled around Europe for a couple years, bicycling, hiking, riding the trains and buses, lodging in youth hostels, all of it an adventure she loved to talk about.
In Placentia, her life was centered on her family and on St. Joseph Catholic Parish. She loved family gatherings and helped care for her grandmother, often driving her to weekday Mass. She was very involved with the life of the church, which included teaching children’s religious education, serving on the Parish Advisory Council, singing in the adult choir at the main Sunday Mass and in the guitar group at the earlier Sunday Mass. There must have been many other ministries as well.
Teresa met her husband John first in 1991 in a Bible Study he led at church. (She always took advantage of every opportunity to grow in her faith.) John’s first wife died in 1993; at the very end of 1994 he asked Teresa out on a date and less than six months later they were wed at St. Joseph Church.
God blessed them with a beautiful daughter, Josephine Elizabeth, truly an answer to prayer. Teresa was committed before birth to instill into Josie the virtues and values and faith that would become the foundation of her life and she did so by homeschooling Josie. While a challenging path to pursue, homeschooling has proven to be the correct decision as Josie has become everything Teresa and John could hope for: a smart, virtuous, faith-filled Catholic Christian woman. They are incredibly proud of her, and delighted with her marriage last August to Dominick DiCesare, the most wonderful son-in-law! And Josie and Dom are expecting the birth of a daughter in May.
Teresa was impeccably honest, without an ounce of pretense or guile, totally transparent. Who she appeared to be in public was exactly who she was in private. Teresa was a prayerful, holy Christian woman; holy in the sense that she saw her life wrapped up in the life, death, and resurrection of her Lord Jesus Christ, and responded freely in offering her life to his service, following him wherever he led. She consciously set her life apart as his disciple. Teresa was generous with her time, abilities, and assets. She volunteered in many capacities at church and delighted in them all. Over the past few years, the Holy Spirit placed upon her heart a burden for grieving people. She, along with Sandy Charlesworth and Kathy Ponce, started the Passages Grief Support Group at St. Joseph, offering the bereaved a safe place to share their hurt and to begin some measure of healing. Teresa loved this ministry and devoted many hours to organizing and publicizing it. Teresa also joined the Bereavement team at church, conferring with many families in mourning to plan the funeral liturgies for their loved ones. Her compassionate spirit and attention to detail helped relieve much stress for these families.
Teresa Thompson was a devout servant of Jesus Christ who found meaning and purpose for her life through self-giving love. She is safe now in his loving embrace. We miss her terribly but are assured of being reunited with her in that home that Christ is preparing for all his faithful ones, where he “will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away.”
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.17