SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Lisa Gonzales wasn't supposed to have children.

Then came Noah.

"When she had Noah, she knew it was a gift from God," said Karen Corona, Gonzales' best friend.

But the journey for mother and son had a bumpy beginning.

Noah David Hernandez named for the Biblical figure and Gonzales' father was born with holes in his heart and underwent heart surgery as a newborn. Gonzales never left her son's side.

When Noah was about six months old, his father left Gonzales to raise the boy alone. As Noah grew, Gonzales' health deteriorated. The diabetes worsened. In April, she went into kidney failure and began dialysis.

Sometime last week, their journey met a tragic end.

Gonzales' body was found in her home Thursday morning after Jade Tea, a Sacramento County Child Protective Services worker who had a scheduled meeting at Gonzales' home in the Sacramento, Calif., neighborhood of Hagginwood, heard Noah crying inside.

Police estimate Gonzales died about six days earlier. Noah, 2, survived by eating food, including cat food, that was within his reach in the home.

On Friday Noah was with his grandparents, Rita and Jess Modesto, of Williams, Calif.

Jess Modesto, Gonzales' stepfather, said Noah is "doing fine." The toddler could be heard squealing playfully during a brief phone conversation.

Modesto politely declined to talk about Gonzales.

"We love our daughter, and we're just trying to cope right now," he said, pausing to compose himself. His voice choked with emotion as he continued.

"We're trying to think of the baby," he said. "We just want to protect Noah."

Gonzales grew up in Woodland, Calif., and worked as a waitress in area restaurants before getting a job at a collection agency in Rancho Cordova, Calif. She most recently did billing at a gym, but since having Noah, had stayed home to care for him. The two got by on state assistance, Corona said.

Gonzales was extremely religious and devoted to her church, Abundant Life Fellowship in Roseville, Calif. She went twice a week, served in the nursery and preschool class and was involved in the church's book club.

"She really wanted to serve God," Corona said.

Gonzales' other devotion was her son.

The mother and son enjoyed going on indoor walks at the mall and watching Noah's favorite movie, "Cars," and his favorite television program, "George Lopez." The two liked singing the theme songs and dancing around the living room.

"Lisa was an awesome mother," she said. "She loved Noah with all her heart."

Corona said it was only in recent months that Gonzales' illness started to take hold, but despite the diabetes and kidney failure, she remained fiercely devoted to caring for Noah on her own.

CPS first became involved with Gonzales on June 16 when someone called, concerned about the ailing mother and the child's welfare.

Tea, a county social worker for five years, responded the same day, but Gonzales was not at home. Tea returned the next two days, and finally found Gonzales at home on June 19. Tea spent slightly more than an hour with mother and child, noting that the mother seemed well, the house was adequately stocked with food and the child happy.

When she returned Thursday for the follow-up, all appeared normal and quiet, until she knocked on the door the second time.

"That's when Noah got scared and started crying," Tea said. "I said: 'Noah, go get your mum!' I said that a couple of times and he just continued to cry, that's when I knew something's wrong."

Tea dialed 911 and followed the dispatcher's instructions by walking around the house to check for points of entry. All the windows and doors were shut.

"It was an intense situation," Tea said. "I was just staying focused on getting him out of the house to see if he's OK."

When police officers and firefighters arrived, they knocked down the door. Tea said Noah was standing beside the door, looking slightly stunned, in a dirty shirt and without diapers or shoes.

He spotted Tea and started moving toward her. She carried him to the car, only briefly catching sight of the silouhette of his mother lying on the floor inside the house.

She put a diaper on him and asked him several questions to determine if he was all right.

"He was occupied with trying to talk to me," Tea said. "I couldn't understand what he was saying, but I was just happy that he was energized."

She took him to the office, where colleagues dressed him in clean clothes and fed him.

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Corona said she spoke with Gonzales the morning of June 20, following Tea's visit. Gonzales told her friend of the June 26 appointment.

"I told her to hang in there, that her healing will come," Corona said. "She said 'I'm trying, I'm really trying.' "

In a conversation June 19, Gonzales indicated to Corona that she wasn't feeling well.

"She said 'I'm just tired of being sick. I'm just tired of being in pain,' " Corona said.

Dora Guerrero, another of Gonzales' close friends, said she also last heard from Gonzales June 20.

"She called and left a voicemail on my cell phone around 8:30 in the evening and said 'Dee, I just wanted to call and say that I'm thinking about you, miss you and call me when you can,' " Guerrero said.

It was the last time Guerrero heard her friend's voice.

"When I saw the front door of the house on the news, it stopped me in my tracks," she said.

"I believe in my heart it's a miracle," Corona said. "The Lord honored her and kept that little boy alive."

She also attributed Noah's survival to his intelligence and his upbringing. "I believe there's a strength in Noah that God's put there," she said.

As Noah's favorite song "Life is a Highway" says "Tell 'em we're survivors."

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(Sacramento Bee researcher Sheila A. Kern contributed to this report.)

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