News - Local

Friday, Jul. 10, 2009

Local health care advocate Isabel Ruiz to be celebrated

Two days before she died, she was on the phone still helping her clients, family says

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Isabel Ruiz liked to tell people she was 5 feet 1 inches tall, though she was rounding up a few centimeters, family members recall.

Now, her family is preparing to celebrate in a memorial service today a life that included a deep commitment to advocacy.

Her height became a running family joke, but it’s also a metaphor for her lifelong determination to reach big heights — particularly as a healthcare advocate for local low-income and Latino families.

“She raised the bar to incredible heights,” said David Ruiz, 35. “She left everything she had on the table.”

The native of Peru who set aside her career as a doctor to join her future husband Napoleon in San Luis Obispo, against her family’s advice, died July 2 after a long battle with cancer. She was 64.

The Arroyo Grande resident’s tireless work in the San Luis Obispo County’s healthcare community has touched thousands of lives.

She worked up until her death. And two days before she died, Isabel was still making calls from her hospital bed to refer services for her clients, family members said.

“The last person she’d think about was herself,” her husband, Napoleon Ruiz, said. “I learned not to interfere with her calls at night and the many hours she put in to helping people because she loved it so much.”

Isabel was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987 and then again in 2000. She underwent regular chemotherapy treatments, but her illness spread to her lungs and bones the second time.

She worked in community outreach for health services in the county for more than three decades, most recently by helping families to enroll uninsured children in public health insurance programs.

Her contributions included developing a medical clinic, starting sex education and senior health screen programs during her 12 years with the county’s Economic Opportunity Commission, now the Community Action Partnership.

She started a free mammogram program for uninsured women as a manager with the Community Health Centers of the Central Coast, her employer for 11 years.

And she began the community health fairs that are now common as an outreach coordinator with French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo and Arroyo Grande Community Hospital.

Ruiz’s two grown children, David and Diana, say their parents had extraordinary love, spending hours talking to one another.

And after each long day, Isabel and Napoleon would relax by drinking wine on the patio. She always made him pour her glass because she considered it proper for a lady.

“Whenever they were apart for any length of time, they’d always talk about how they missed each other,” said Diana Ruiz, 29. “They had a deep love and made big sacrifices for the family.”

Napoleon recalls the weekly letters they wrote to each other for nearly two years while he lived in San Luis Obispo and she resided in Peru.

Isabel Ruiz’s family was hesitant to allow their daughter, a trained doctor in obstetrics and gynecology, to come to the U.S. to marry Napoleon. They were unsure of his character and wondered about his desire to travel and see the world after leaving his native Peru.

But Isabel was strong-willed and even if her family members were adamant, she likely would have gone anyway, family members believe.

It took years, but her family grew to accept Napoleon and later visited.

Napoleon said his wife was the best travel companion he could imagine. In addition to many trips back to Peru, they visited places including Russia, China, Alaska and New Zealand.

Isabel leaves behind dozens of local friends, many of whom will remember well her selflessness.

“We had a great life together,” said Napoleon, an agricultural engineer. “It was a life of great happiness.”

Time and Place

A memorial to celebrate the life of Isabel Ruiz, who died July 2, is set for 5:30 p.m. today at Tolosa Winery and Vineyard at 4910 Edna Road in San Luis Obispo. The public is welcome.