Maria Matilde Lugo-Wiscovitch

Maria Matilde Lugo-Wiscovitch, age 83 passed away in peace, while surrounded by the love of her family February 22, 2026, after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for seven years.

Maria was born to Nicolas Lugo and Isabel Wiscovitch Lugo in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico on January 19, 1943. Born with spina bifida, she was a miracle baby, who grew into a healthy and strong, loyal daughter, deeply connected to her closely knit Lugo-Wiscovitch family of many aunts, uncles and cousins. Her childhood summers were spent playing with cousins in the country, and in later years, dressing up to go to dances together. During the school year, Maria spent the afternoons helping at her family’s pharmacy, Farmacia Wiscovitch in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where her mother was the pharmacist.

One of her happiest memories was spending afternoons with her father, walking around the neighborhood together, making home deliveries of prescriptions, to their customers. When Maria was seven, her parents welcomed her beloved sister, Isabel Jarboe (Donald). The two grew up in an affluent home, both attending excellent private parochial schools. Maria excelled in math and quickly became an asset to her father, helping him run the family business. She graduated with a teaching degree from the University of Puerto Rico, where she served as President of her sorority Mu Alpha Phi. After graduation, she opted to continue to work at the pharmacy, to help her parents. In those years, in her twenties, she traveled extensively with her parents, from Thailand, Japan, and China, to Denmark, Sweden and Russia.

In 1970, at the age of 27, while working at the pharmacy, she met a pharmaceutical sales representative named Fernando Colón and were married a month later. Together they had two children, Kevin Colón (Amy) of Superior, Colorado in 1973 and Carol Colón Turner (Clay) of Louisville, Kentucky in 1974. Their married journey took them from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Hardinsburg, Kentucky for one year and then to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, where the family established deep roots in the community, through the children’s schools and at Immanuel Baptist Church, where the family gathered every time the doors were open.

Maria and Fernando unfortunately divorced in 1985, but she persevered, working three jobs to support her children, while earning a Masters Degree in Spanish Literature from the University of Louisville. She also survived breast cancer in 1999. Her teaching career spanned 32 years, she taught Spanish at the University of Louisville, St. Xavier High School and retired in 2017 from Indiana University Southeast. Then she devoted herself completely to the care of her aging mother, who passed away at the age of 104 on January 3, 2020.

Maria will be remembered for her enormous faith and service to God; her unparalleled strength and tenacity to move forward in all situations; her indefatigable smile, boisterous laughter and joie de vivre; as a wonderful, warm friend to all; as an extraordinary caretaker to her entire family; and best of all, as the greatest grandmother or “Abuela.”

Maria is survived by her sister Isabel, her children Kevin and Carol and the greatest loves of her life, her seven grandchildren; Emma Colón, Claire Colón, Olivia Colón, Hahn Colón, Gabriel Turner, Jude Turner and Sarah Kate Turner.

Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend a Funeral Mass on Saturday, March 28 at 10 a.m. in Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, 508 Breckinridge Lane St. Matthews, Kentucky, celebrated by Father David Sanchez. A gathering will be held one hour prior to the

service at the church. A private graveside service will be held at Ivy Hill Cemetery in Hardinsburg, Kentucky at 2 p.m.

To share a memory of Maria or leave a special message for her family, please visit the guestbook below.