09/12/2025
At the end of the day, Maria “Mary Jo” DeFreitas, PsyT/CNA, goes home feeling grateful. The psychiatric technician with the Behavioral Health Unit/Turner 8 at Newport Hospital says, “When I finish my day, I feel good about my job and the work I do.”
She remembers a different feeling back in 1980 when she started with the hospital as a member of the housekeeping staff. She and her husband, along with their two-year-old daughter, had just moved from Madeira, Portugal to join his family in Newport. She was tending a room with two young, male patients. They were speaking to her, but she was able to reply with only, “Me. No English.” That’s when they began laughing and she realized they were making fun of her. She went home in tears at the end of her shift – vowing to learn English.
That sparked a 45-year career with Newport Hospital. While working and raising a family that grew to three children, her language skills progressed, and she obtained a GED. She transferred between laundry and transportation, where she spent the bulk of 20 years before becoming a certified nursing assistant, and later working with the Vanderbilt Rehabilitation Center.
“The hospital is like family,” DeFreitas reflects, referring to her many colleagues through the years. There have been two “real” family members among her hospital family. Husband Ernesto, a dietary assistant with the food and production department at the hospital, retired this summer after 30 years of service. Her son was an x-ray technician, she helped set him on that path, encouraging him in high school to complete more than 400 hours of community service at the hospital.
Thank you Mary Jo for your dedication to our community and Newport Hospital!
