In Loving Memory of Arlette Cruz-Diaz

Arlette, a sister, a daughter and a friend to all. Always lit up any room she entered. The all-time favorite goalie played with the love of soccer. With her family by her side, she always reached for the stars!

Arlette is known to be the class clown, best smile, and her contagious laugh . Everywhere she went, she turned heads on how loud and free spirited she was ! Soccer was her life’s passion, leading to her being a 3 time State Champion goalie playing for the Fortuna Union High School Girls Soccer Team. She was very dedicated to soccer, and dreamt of playing at university.

Last Aug, 2022 she started having symptoms of numbness to her left side, which led to her being flown out to UCSF for eval and was diagnosed with a brain tumor (glioma stage 3), non-operable. She went through 5 months of chemo and/or radiation. Continued with PT and was high spirited, living independently , driving, working part time until.... Her symptoms returned in the month of February 2023, which triggered a series of side effects including loss of hearing, loss of movement of left arm/leg, difficulty with speech and staying awake, eventually leading to difficulties swallowing. She was then taken to UCSF again, and upon further investigation found brain-swelling and growth of the tumor which proceeded with shunt placement in her brain to remove excess fluid, in hopes of her recovering from this brief battle.

After a month of being at UCSF, she was unfortunately unable to fully recover. On April 22, 2023, Arlette passed away at the age of 20, surrounded by her loved ones. Her family would like to point out that through this painful and difficult journey, she never once complained of the circumstances she was dealt, but merely found joy in the days that she was given. We will all miss her beautiful spirit, and hilarious sense of humor.

If anybody would like to help the family, my hope is that they are able to grieve their child, without dealing with the financial burden that comes with this unexpected, devastating loss.