‘Perfect match’: Cuban parents of Carrollton grads recovered in Surfside condo collapse
Walking along the beach Monday afternoon, Carolina Rovirosa Marrelli gave viewers some insight into her world since the collapse of Champlain Towers South.
“My husband’s been a saint and he’s taking the kids for hours at a time so I can just go walk and pray on the beach and work on healing my heart with the loss of my family — the missing family,” Marrelli said via Facebook Live, quickly correcting herself. “I don’t even want to say they’re lost yet because we’re still holding out for a miracle.”
Richard George Rovirosa, 60, and his wife Maria Teresa Rovirosa, 58, whom friends and family affectionately call Ricky and Maituca, are Marrelli’s cousins and lived on the third floor of the condo tower that collapsed in the early hours of June 24.
Maria Teresa’s body was recovered in the wreckage on July 7. Police announced Richard was recovered July 10.
“They have always been more like my uncle and aunt due to the age difference,” Marrelli said of them in an earlier Facebook post. “... He was so handsome (and a great dancer) and Maituca was stunning (and always the sweetest).”
The couple has two daughters, Adriana and Alejandra. Both girls graduated from Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart in Coconut Grove: Alejandra in 2011 and Adriana in 2015. Alejandra was married in 2019.
The Rovirosa family has long been associated with the stevedore business at Port Miami and Port Everglades, running Florida Stevedoring for decades. The company has its roots in Havana when Frank A. Rovirosa started a stevedore company there bearing his name in 1937.
Lordes Losada, Maria Teresa’s college roommate, recently visited the memorial wall in Surfside and saw the photo of her friend of 40 years high up on the chain-link fence.
Years before Maria Teresa married Richard George Rovirosa, she lived in a small apartment in Key Biscayne that she shared with Losada.
Losada said her friend was “the best soul ever.” Maria Teresa was known for “taking charge” in the task of caring for others, whether it be her family, parents, or friends.
“She had a heart of... she was just a great person. I can’t come to the words right now because I’m still in shock,” Losada said. “She would take what she had and give it to everybody.”
Monika Mucarsel Gressier, a longtime friend of the couple who worked with Maria Teresa, told The Associated Press that their Surfside condo served as a “part-time summer getaway.”
Gressier also said the couple is a “perfect match.”
“When I think of them, I think of one of my favorite memories of the times I watched them dance salsa and how loving they were always to each other,” Gressier said in the article.
A previous version of this story gave an incorrect year for Alejandra’s wedding.
This story was originally published July 6, 2021 at 7:13 PM.
