Emma Salazar, the 83-year-old matriarch of a family that includes Congressional members John and Ken Salazar, underwent tests at Swedish Medical Center’s neurology department this afternoon after suffering a cerebral aneurysm.
“She is conscious and in good spirits,” reported son LeRoy Salazar. He operates the family’s Salazar Natural Beef business on the Manassa ranch that has been in the Salazar family for more than 150 years.
In a cerebral aneurysm, there is swelling in the weakened wall of a blood vessel in the brain. Aneurysms result from congenital defects, and from pre-existing conditions including high blood pressure and atherosclerosis (fatty deposits in the arteries).
It is a life-threatening disorder, serious enough to prompt U.S. Senate minority leader Harry Reid to announce on the Senate floor this afternoon that Emma Salazar was extremely ill.
“The entire Salazar family is together in Denver as we speak, comforting her and each other during this very difficult time,” Reid said. “I would hope that all members of the senate family would keep this good man and his family in our prayers.”
Emma Salazar and her husband, Henry, who died in 2001, raised 8 children, including triplets, in the modest Manassas farmhouse where Emma Salazar still lives. The farmhouse famously lacked electricity and telephone service until 1981.
Henry Salazar worked at the state transportation department’s Port of Entry in Fort Garland. Emma Salazar arose daily at dawn to pick carrots, cucumbers and peas from the garden, and then make a breakfast of eggs, potatoes and oatmeal for her family.
She assigned each child a room to clean, read them stores and sang hymns that conveyed her unshakable faith. Whenever her children traveled more than 2 hours from home, she gave them a Spanish blessing as they knelt before her, a tradition she still maintains.
Her husband and children credited Emma Salazar with providing a steady center following the death of her eldest child, Leandro. He died in a 1992 farming accident.
In 1998, Emma Salazar submitted to triple bypass heart surgery at a Pueblo hospital. When she recuperated, she became the primary caretaker of her husband, then suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Her heart currently functions at about 25 percent of its capacity, and she takes medication to control high blood pressure. She rests frequently, sleeping about 16 hours a day.
“O heart of mine, in the name of Jesus, I command you to become stronger,” she prays every night before retiring.
“I command you to become stronger. Pump strong and steady so that I can gain my strength back.”
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com
