{"id":41235,"date":"2022-04-11T14:24:08","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T20:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-mexico-governors-mother-sonja-lujan-dies-at-age-82\/"},"modified":"2022-04-11T20:24:08","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T20:24:08","slug":"new-mexico-governors-mother-sonja-lujan-dies-at-age-82","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-mexico-governors-mother-sonja-lujan-dies-at-age-82\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mexico governor\u2019s mother, Sonja Lujan, dies at age 82"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Michelle
Michelle Lujan Grisham holds the wheelchair of her mother, Sonja Lujan, as they speak with voters after casting their ballots during the Democratic primary elections at Garfield Middle School in Albuquerque June 5, 2018. In a statement Monday, the governor\u2019s office said that Sonja Luhan, an advocate for children with disabilities, died on Sunday of natural causes. She was 82. (Juan Labreche\/Associated Press file)<\/span>Juan Labreche<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SANTA FE \u2013 Sonja Lujan, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham\u2019s mother and an advocate for children with disabilities, has died of natural causes. Sonja Lujan was 82.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office said in a statement Monday that she died on Sunday. The governor told reporters last week that her mother\u2019s health had declined and that she was in hospice care at the governor\u2019s residence in Santa Fe.<\/p>\n

The first-term governor described her mom as \u201ctruly one of a kind\u201d who fought for the best standards of care and refused to back down when she knew more could be done to help children in need.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer tenacity and determination in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges has inspired me every single day of my adult life,\u201d Lujan Grisham said. \u201cShe taught me to fight hard \u2013 to make sure no one is left behind, that no family is lacking the support they need and deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lujan Grisham said that while neither her mother nor father ever ran for political office, they taught her the importance of serving the community. Her mother raised three children, including Lujan Grisham\u2019s sister, Kimberly, who was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor as a toddler and died at 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe became a dedicated advocate for my sister Kimberly and children with disabilities across the country simply because there was no other choice,\u201d Lujan Grisham said.<\/p>\n

Sonja Lujan spent her final days surrounded by relatives and the governor said she will be missed dearly.<\/p>\n

Sonja Lujan was in an assisted living facility in Albuquerque during the coronavirus pandemic, which was often mentioned by Lujan Grisham. The governor said many of the public health decisions she made at the time were aimed at keeping people like her mother safe.<\/p>\n

In a May 2021 post on social media<\/a>, the governor said that despite the challenges over the past year, she was glad to finally be able to celebrate Mother\u2019s Day with her mom in person. She also acknowledged her mother\u2019s birthday during her state of the state address in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelle Lujan Grisham holds the wheelchair of her mother, Sonja Lujan, as they speak with voters after casting their ballots during the Democratic primary elections at Garfield Middle School in Albuquerque June 5, 2018. In a statement Monday, the governor\u2019s office said that Sonja Luhan, an advocate for children with disabilities, died on Sunday of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-41235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41235"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=41235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}