A long and fruitful life

Arteaga (Mexico). On 8 August 2020, after 109 years of life and 78 years as a happy Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, in the Community of Holy Mary of Nazareth in Arteaga, Coah, of the Mother of the Church Province (MMO), Sr. Elodia Leal Cárdenas, sealed her covenant of love with the God of life.

Born in Allende, Nuevo León (Mexico), on October 22, 1910, Sister Elodia was the sixth of twelve children of a family with Christian roots and solid values. The fruit was the donation to the Lord of three Daughters of Mary Help of Christians: Sister Elodia, Sister Rebeca, and Sister Esther, who is now 101 years old.

When Elodia was 7, her family moved to Monterrey, where in the early years she studied with the sisters of Guadalupe and, after the fifth grade, she met the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. Thus she began to attend the 6^th  year at the Excelsior School of the FMA, where she also participated in the activities of the festive oratory.

After her Religious Profession, made in North Haledon (USA) on 5 August 1942, she returned to Mexico. She embarks on the mission of teacher, carried out with competence, love, and dedication for 50 years. As Director of the Morelia Normal School (Michoacán), she prepares the new teachers with wisdom and competence. In the different houses she passes through, she leaves her mark as an educator, both with the adolescents in the middle school and with the children in the primary school. The pupils remember her as an educated person and capable of keeping discipline.

In 2009, at the age of 99, she came to Mary of Nazareth House for rest. Sister Elodia had the ability to go out of herself to meet and help others. She liked to give advice, to encourage, and it reached people’s hearts. She lived with simplicity and dedication, was very close to her family, and was much loved.

At the beginning of  2^nd  year towards the 150^th  of Foundation of the Institute,   Sister Elodia’s long and fruitful life is a testimony of loving fidelity which invites us to welcome with gratitude and responsibility the “I entrust them to you” which is “a commitment that goes beyond time and space and puts all our resources into play, our educational and evangelizing passion, our will to look to the future with the audacity of Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello” (Circular 1000).