[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15019]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING MARY BETTY MINERO

                                 ______
                                 

                      HON. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 17, 2014

  Ms. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, I rise today 
to honor the life of New Mexico resident Mary Betty Minero, who passed 
away on July 15, 2014.
  Betty was a lifelong resident of Barelas and a regular at Barelas 
Coffee House, which is where I first met her during my campaign for 
Congress in 2012. Betty had an outsized personality and an exuberant 
joy for life. She and I made a connection the instant she approached 
me, clutching her Betty Boop lunch pail, for a hug. Betty made me feel 
special, the same way she treated dozens of New Mexicans she embraced 
with equal enthusiasm each day. Neighbors, business leaders and 
government workers were always greeted by Betty as she worked the crowd 
before settling in at table 9A with a spoon in hand and half-and-half 
ready for her coffee.
  Betty loved to dance. When she wasn't dancing with customers in the 
tight entryway at the coffee house, Betty could be found each Tuesday 
at Ned's, where her daughter, Geri Lucero, would take her for a night 
of dancing and local music.
  Betty loved her close-knit family that included her husband, Ambrosio 
Minero, and their three daughters: Geri Lucero, Gloria Gutierrez and 
Betty Jo Martin. She also treasured her encounters with everyone she 
met. Her daughter said Betty never considered anyone a stranger, and if 
you talked to her long enough, she concluded you were probably related. 
She liked to tell people she thought she was 21 years old--before 
looking into the mirror and realizing she was really a young 89.
  She was a parishioner at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Barelas and 
she was known to pray for the people she met, particularly those who 
were sick. Shortly before her death, Betty mourned the untimely death 
of her great-grandson, Jacob Gutierrez, a football star at Del Norte 
High School.
  Betty's sincerity and genuine appreciation for others has had a 
profound effect on everyone who was fortunate enough to enjoy Betty's 
company and her spirit lives on in our community. My thoughts and 
prayers are with her family and friends. May the memory of Betty live 
on in our hearts.

                          ____________________