Maria Isabel O'Brien

Maria was born in Humacao, Puerto Rico, on February 1, 1931, one of the 14 children of Adolfo and Marta Casanova. She grew up on a sugar cane plantation outside Humacao, before pursuing a teaching degree from the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras. Her love of travel and new experiences led her to a job as a travel agent, a career she intended to pursue in California in 1957. However, on her way to Los Angeles her flight stopped in Newark New Jersey, and Maria had lunch with Tom O’Brien, a young man from Bayonne with whom she had been corresponding for several years. As she would relate in later years, she ‘didn’t made it to Los Angeles’…

Maria and Tom married in 1960. Together they raised three sons; Maria supported her boys as a homemaker while they grew, prospered, married and eventually had children of their own. During this time Maria continued to maintain strong ties to her family in Puerto Rico while she developed new ties to Tom’s family in New Jersey, and to the new friends the couple met as they established their life together in Forestville, Maryland.

Maria's Catholic faith influenced much of her life – she and Tom sent their sons to Catholic schools, and she was a very active parishioner and volunteer at Holy Spirit Church in Forestville. She attended Mass daily and prayed regularly; she was particularly devoted to the Rosary and to the veneration of the Sacred Heart.

In her later years Maria returned to the workforce as an executive assistant at the US Census Bureau. In retirement she was finally able to resume her travels, this time with Tom at her side; the couple traveled extensively across the Americas and the Caribbean, to Europe, to Alaska and to North Africa (where Maria rode a camel!).

After Maria lost Tom in 2014 her family began to notice symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, the terrible affliction that eventually would take her from them. In her remaining years Maria continued to share her support and positivity with those she loved, even as her strength waned, and her memory dimmed. On August 25, 2023, Maria’s enduring light finally faded out, and she joined her beloved Tom with the angels.

Maria Isabel O’Brien is survived by eight of her fourteen siblings (Julia, Carmen, Marta, Aida, Violeta, Arturo, Bruni and Idalia), as well as her sons George, Martin Sean and James; their spouses Cynthia, Allen and Michelle; her grandchildren Phillip, Emily, Andrew and Aidan; dozens of nieces and nephews, and many dear friends.

A funeral Mass for Maria will be held at 11:30 AM on Thursday, September 21, at Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church, 4835 MacArthur Boulevard NW, Washington DC; from 10:30 AM family and friends will be received at the church during a reception that will precede the Mass.

Maria will be interred on Friday, September 22 after a private ceremony at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, 13801 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD.

Those who would prefer to honor Maria’s memory with an option other than flowers are encouraged to donate to the Alzheimer’s Association (www.alz.org).