February 27, 1934 – August 16, 2026
Sr. Noela was born on February 27th, 1934 to Rafael and Arcadia Garcia. Her birthplace was Falfurrias, a South Texas ranching area. She was the youngest of 12 children and her 6 brothers gifted her with a wonderful sense of humor. She often mentioned that they played tricks and jokes on one another.
Sr. Noela arrived in Waltham, MA on October 3rd, 1962 to enter the Postulancy. She had never met a Marist Missionary Sister until the day she made the long journeys from Texas to Boston. One of the items she brought with her was a rubber snake that probably had belonged to one of her brothers. Early in her formation, Sr. Mary Regis (Mercedes Kirst), the Formation Director, called her into her office for a conversation. She mentioned to Sr. Noela that she found her very quiet and told her to try “to be herself”. So, Sr. Noela looked for an opportunity to “be herself”. In the laundry, she found a pile of recently washed and folded clothes that belonged to Sr. Mary Regis and hid the rubber snake inside. After a few days Sr. Noela “fessed up” to the trick. Regis looked shocked–but Sr. Noela told her: “You told me to be myself!” However, she never got the rubber snake back.
Sr. Noela received the name: Sr. Mary Eileen as a novice and in 1966, a year after her first profession, she was missioned to Peru. Her first assignment was as a teacher at Colegio San Jose in Callao, a Marist Brothers’ elementary school for boys. During her second year of teaching, in October, there was a serious earthquake in the Lima-Callao area. It happened at school dismissal time and the two-story wall that faced the patio fell down as the students were coming out of the classrooms. Two students were killed and others were injured as they tried to protect themselves from the falling debris.
At end of 1967, Sr. Noela, who grew up in a bilingual household and was a business school graduate, was missioned to the Prelature of Chulucanas. She was named to work as the secretary to the new bishop of the new prelature, John McNabb, an Augustinian from Chicago. Chulucanas comprised of a vast area of mountains and desert in northern Peru. Many years later, it would become a Diocese and the first mission assignment of an Augustinian priest from Chicago by the name of Robert Francis Prevost, who, years later, became Pope Leo XIV. For six years, Sr. Noela was a valuable assistant and secretary to Bishop McNabb as the Prelature of Chulucanas sought ways of forming Basic Christian Communities and empowerment of the Laity.
In 1971, Sr. Noela pronounced her final vows in her hometown of Falfurrias, Texas, surrounded by her family and community.
From 1973-1975, she served the SMSM in Peru as Regional Leader. She and her council purchased the house in Maranga which served as a “Center House” for the Region for fifty years. The house provided hospitality for both the SMSM in the Region and for many other Sisters from other Congregations. Sr. Noela’s time as regional was a time of Post Vatican II–it was a time of upheaval. Sr. Noela had grown up in a large family where she learned how to compromise–she brought the gift to leadership along with a sense of humor.
From 1983 to 1989, she was missioned to Monteria in northern Colombia. It was a new country and a new reality for the SMSM. Once again, Sr. Noela was asked to take on a leadership role. During her time in Colombia, a second mission was opened in a marginal neighborhood in Bogota, Diana Turbay.
In 1989, Sr. Noela transferred to the North American Province. She briefly worked in Pastoral Hispanic Ministry in Santa Rosa, Texas, near Brownsville. When the SMSM was closed, Sr. Noela moved on to Fort Smith, Arkansas, where she worked for three years in Hispanic Ministry. In 1997 she won an award for volunteer work with the “Fort Smith Literacy Council”.
Throughout the years between changes of mission assignments, Sr. Noela participated in renewal programs and opportunities for updating her skills. In 1999, after her renewal program in Canada, she was briefly missioned to Chicago and after that she moved to a new SMSM community in Memphis, TN on Oakmont St. She worked in Hispanic Ministry, the training of CCD Catechists and pastoral ministry to the sick. Sr. Noela and Sr. Aloisia Vea formed an impressive pastoral team. A headline in the “West Tennessee Catholic Newspaper” read: “The Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary bring Mary’s love to the diocese.” In April of 2010, the Oakmont community was closed and the house sold.
After serving as a team member of the LTSR in Rome, Sr. Noela was missioned to San Bernadino, Ca. from 2012 to 2013.
She then returned to 62 Newton St. and gave community service for six years. Then at the end of 2019, just as the Pandemic was beginning, Sr. Noela moved to the Marillac Residence. She is remembered there not only for the many friendships she made but her spirit of quiet service.
Sr. Noela’s life mirrors so much of the history of the SMSM in both Latin America and the U.S. She lived that history in a graceful, sometimes quiet, sometimes playful manner but always trying to bring Mary’s Love.
Written by Sr. Susan Scherkenbach, smsm
In Jesus and Mary,
Sr. Palepa Ioane, smsm
Regional Superior
