Housekeeping will never be the same at Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club. Not with Darlene Rosario at the helm.

Rosario started work at Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club in early August – and she’s ready to roll up some serious sleeves.

Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Rosario discovered the position on Craig’s List – accidentally. She wasn’t at the time looking for employment. But there it was, nonetheless.

For the freckle-faced red head who was raised in Puerto Rico, her arrival at Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club may have been more of a matter of providence. God, she says, directs our paths and points us to our destiny. Our role is to listen – and to obey, she says.

Raised an Orthodox Jew, her values and ethics are steeped in the tenets of her faith, instilled deeply in her way of thinking and shaping her attitude toward life and work.

“Wherever you are, God is always watching over you,” she said. That sense of the divine, that synchronicity with the spiritual, translates even to the level of her speech and how she reacts to people.

“I think before I act,” she said. “I evaluate before I make a decision.”

Going Back to Childhood

Her in-depth scrutiny of life has its origins in her childhood in Puerto Rico – as the little red-headed Italian girl with freckles – and her grandparents’ generation. Living during the rise of the Holocaust, her Jewish grandparents had to go into hiding and were constantly observing their surroundings.

Her upbringing helped solidify those deeply inbred moral tenets of Orthodox Judaism. As a child, she and her parents prayed before and after meals. That and other habits built into her a sense of gratitude, tenderness, patience and precision – all of which she incorporates in her own life and intends on employing as director of housekeeping. “You have to use a stern yet gentle hand,” she said.

Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club has 12 housekeepers and housemen. Housemen tend to outside work. Housekeeping maintains the clubhouse, model homes, rental properties and the general-use facilities.

Rosario has three grown children. Two are attending college. As a young woman, Rosario studied business administration and economics in college in Massachusetts. She has worked in the industry for 30 years — 20 of those in management.

Although retirement is more than 15 years away, she said she is looking forward to fulfilling a lifelong dream: To drive an RV to Chile. “I like to learn about different countries.” She would have to brush up on her Spanish and Portuguese, which she learned as a child.

Rosario said she loves Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club. “I’ve been in places like this as  a guest. I love the atmosphere.”

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