Sr. Marita was born in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico, and says she was “called to join God’s labor” when she was 12 years old. Adelina (her baptismal name) is one of eight children.   She joined the Mission Helpers because they fostered her vocation by their example, entering in 1953 and spending her first years studying to be a teacher of catechetics and religion in both Venezuela and the U.S.  She has a master’s degree in Family Orientation from Lincoln Juarez University in Austin, Texas.
 
She has taught religion and been a family counselor in both Spanish and English in Barquisimeto and Manzanita, Venezuela; Wilmington, Delaware; and San Antonio, Texas.    
 
In 1988, she was called to Barquisimeto, Venezuela, in a ministry of evangelization and education.   In 1990 joined Sister Rosa Sofia Toledo in establishing the Mission Helper mission in Manzanita, a cluster of villages in a remote, underserved, and impoverished area in northwest Lara State. Srs. Marita and Rosa became the Pastoral Administrators of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, a parish established by the Sisters in Manzanita.
 
Sr. Marita lived among the villagers, ministering among the poor and the sick. 
“On a typical day,” she recalls, “I would listen to the people talk about the problems of life in this region.  I visited them in their homes giving counseling, cooking meals—sometimes providing the food.  I gave them what medicines I had, held wake services, buried the dead and consoled the relatives.  I prayed with them. I did what I could do.”
 
After 32 years in the villages, Sr. Marita returned to the United States and is now a welcome addition to the Mission Helpers’ pastoral care ministry at St. Elizabeth Hall, a retirement community in Timonium, Maryland.