According to Sister De Lellis’ nephew, Danny Guevara, the transfer signaled the start of a distinguished career as the pre-eminent lab director over a three-decade span. Guevara, who considers Sister De Lellis his mentor, believes that her expertise and vision modernized the laboratory.

“Back in the mid-1960’s and then the early ‘70s she automated the laboratory,” explained Guevara, who is the outgoing chief operating officer at Mercy Health Center. “It was the only hospital in town and when you talk about spending about $60,000 back in the late ‘60s for a piece of equipment for the lab, that as a huge investment. The lab became a very progressive laboratory and the first in south Texas to have this type of automation. It was a state-of-the-art lab and she built it, starting with the hematology lab to the chemistry lab and eventually became totally automated.”

While her accomplishments in the medical field are noteworthy, this time period also marked another more significant beginning. “There have always been people or families who needed help in Laredo,” explained Sister De Lellis. “I remember as a young girl during the Depression that were was nothing. Here there were no soup kitchens. We were very poor and Laredo was very poor.”

“The land surrounding the airport and the new hospital were fields of crops. These included onions, carrots, watermelon, cantaloupes and of course corn. Everyone picked onions because this was the most plentiful crop.”

Those memories, as well as the humanitarian spirit personified by her mother despite their personal economic woes, motivated Sister De Lellis for her current and bold undertaking of feeding the poor. “The idea to help people came to me from my parents because although we were a poor family, there were many poor had less than we. My mama was very generous and did not waste or throw away any small piece of bread because somebody might need it.”

Her effort to feed the poor began with humility. Sister De Lellis started handing out food from her lab to a handful of people. Typical of Laredo, where sounds travel faster than light, word soon spread of her generosity.

“She gave cheese from the lab that caused the cheese riots of the 1980’s,” recalls Guevara. “They created a huge line from the doors of the old hospital all the way to the ER room and people were disorderly. The newspaper and the TV stations came out and it made the news. But it wasn’t much of a riot. She went out there and told everyone where to stand and where to go and that there was enough for everyone. The amazing thing is that everyone listened to her.”

As her popularity and philanthropy grew, Mercy Hospital provided a small building on the corner of Hendricks and Galveston to house the first La Casita in 1980. Twelve years later, after retirement as lab director, Mercy’s La Casita moved to its current location, which it shares with the hospital’s fleet mechanic. The Lamar Bruni Vergara Rehabilitation and Education Center now sits on the original site.

While the Sister of Mercy doesn’t depend on her mother’s orchards of oranges, grapefruits and peaches to help the less fortunate, she does rely on the generosity of Mercy Health Center, south Texans, the Laredo Regional Food Band and the South Texas Regional Food Bank to help the hungry.