Adelia V. Cardoso

Adelia Lukondo Urbano Cardoso lived a life rooted in faith, family, service, learning, and love. She was a devoted wife and mother, an accomplished professional and educator, a trusted counselor, a gifted writer and singer, and a woman whose influence reached far beyond the walls of her own home.

Adelia was born on November 19, 1936, in Santa Rosa, Andulo, Angola, the eldest of eight children born to Laurina Chilele and Sapunga Urbano. She attended the Chilesso Mission School and completed her secondary education in Huambo, then known as Nova Lisboa.

In 1962, Adelia had the opportunity to continue her education abroad. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Switzerland and later a master’s degree in biology from Shepherd College in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Her education and travels reflected her remarkable affinity for languages. In addition to Umbundu, her native tongue, she spoke Portuguese, French, and English, becoming fluent in all four languages.

Somewhere between earning those degrees, Adelia met the man who would become her husband and life partner, the late Bishop Zacarias Joao Cardoso. They married on July 10, 1965, in New York City. To Adelia, he was “Amor,” and she became his “Dalia.”

Together, they welcomed four children: Esperança Urbano Cardoso (Isunji), Laurina Urbano Cardoso, Angela Urbano Cardoso, and Joaquim Sapunga Cardoso. But motherhood was never limited to the children Adelia gave birth to. Her door and her arms were always open. She often said, “If you can feed one, you can feed two,” and she lived by those words. She helped raise her nieces and nephews Joao Cardoso-Neto (Pijo), Esperança Cardoso Thompson (Nany), Beatriz D. Cardoso (Biby), Sandra Urbano Strong, and H. Gil Inglês, loving and treating them as her own. Many others experienced that same mothering spirit. There was room at her table, room in her home, and room in her heart.

Adelia built a distinguished career in healthcare and education. She worked as a medical technologist at hospitals throughout the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and taught medical technology at Georgetown School of Arts and Sciences, a role she loved. She later worked in the blood bank at Southern Maryland Hospital Center in Clinton, Maryland, retiring in 2006.

But a résumé could never adequately describe Adelia. She had an analytical mind and a deeply creative spirit. She loved to write and sing, and she could grow just about anything. Her well-known green thumb was evident in the thriving houseplants that filled her home, the vegetable garden in her backyard, and the beautiful, prizeworthy irises that graced her front yard.

Adelia loved to laugh and found humor wherever she could. She was also famous for communicating without saying a word. Those who knew her well knew “the mother look”—and her legendary facial expressions could convey amusement, approval, disbelief, or displeasure, sometimes carrying on an entire conversation without a word being spoken.

Along with her humor came wisdom. Family and friends sought Adelia’s counsel because she listened carefully and offered advice grounded in experience, common sense, compassion, and faith. Even when her advice was not what someone wanted to hear, it was given with love.

At the center of Adelia’s life was her faith in God. Her faith was not merely something she professed; it was something she practiced. As the wife of a pastor and later a bishop, she walked alongside her husband in ministry while finding her own ways to serve. Throughout her life, she served in various United Methodist churches and was active in United Methodist Women, Stephen Ministry, and the Walk to Emmaus Ministry. Through seasons of great joy and profound loss, she remained anchored in the God she trusted.

Adelia’s legacy lives in people—in her children and grandchildren, the many others she mothered, family and friends who benefited from her wisdom, students she taught, colleagues with whom she worked, and those with whom she worshipped and served.

Adelia is survived by her sisters, Dina Martins, Flora Inglês, and Margarida Caiotela; her children; her grandchildren; and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, extended family members, and loved ones.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Sapunga and Laurina Urbano; her sisters, Alcina Urbano, Alberta Urbano, and Alice Urbano; her brother, David Urbano; her beloved husband, Zacarias Cardoso; her daughter, Angela Cardoso; and her nieces, Sandra Urbano and Biby Cardoso.

Adelia completed her earthly journey and began her heavenly one on Thursday, August 27, 2026, in Waldorf, Maryland. Those who loved her will miss her laughter and wisdom, her counsel and songs, her words and her garden, her open arms and open door—and especially the look that could convey everything she felt without saying a word.

Like the seeds she planted in her gardens, the ones she planted in people will continue to grow.

Her life was full. Her faith was steadfast. Her love was generous. And her legacy lives on.

Until we meet again, dear sister, mom, aunt, grandma, and friend.

Friends may visit with the family Friday, September 18 from 10 am until time of service at 11 am in The Chapel of Thornton Funeral Home, 3439 Livingston Road Indian Head, MD 20640. Interment private.