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Carmen Gomez Maestas
February 5, 1926-June 7, 2021
Maestas obit pic
At rest with Our Lord, Carmen Gomez Maestas, age 95, longtime parishioner of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church since moving from St. Paul’s parish in San Francisco in 1980. She is reunited with her husband, the Rev. Deacon Alfredo Maestas Sr., and sons, Alfred Jr., Joseph Eloy, Gilbert, and grandson John Paul. She leaves behind six children, Viola, Yolanda, Reba Ann, Rachel, Mary, and Thomas (Delia) along with 22 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren, one great-great grandchild, their families and bonus grand, great, and great-great grandchildren.
   Born in Bovina, TX, raised in Littlefield, she spent her youth between school and picking cotton. Losing her mother, Silveria Martinez Gomez, when she was 11, she left school to help her father, Antonio, care for her younger sibling, nieces and nephews. She married her childhood friend, eventually moving to SF’s Noe Valley neighborhood in 1954 where all nine children attended St. Paul’s Catholic schools. Carmen endlessly prayed the rosary to the Blessed Mary, believed her devotion to St. Teresa of Calcutta healed her multiple myeloma, and attended multiple pilgrimages to Lourdes, Medjugorje and the Holy Land.
   Carmen hand-stitched many family quilts, was a great cook reknown for her flour tortillas, and Christmas was incomplete without her tamales and menudo. With Dad playing the guitar, harmonizing beautifully to corridos at family parties, they glided gracefully around the dance floor to ranchera music.  Carmen worked in SF as a machinist at Schlage Lock, then as a housekeeper at St. Luke’s Hospital.
   PL Fry and Son Funeral Home, 290 N. Union Rd., Manteca, CA 95337.
   A visitation from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m., Rosary at 6:00 p.m. (will be live-streamed).  Mass of Christian burial will be held Friday, June 18, 11:00 a.m. at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, 505 E North Street, Manteca, CA 95336. Internment at St. John’s Catholic Cemetery, 17871 Carrolton Road, Escalon, CA 95320.     

Manteca (Calif.) Bulletin

Wednesday, June 16, 2021