LAWRENCE — After getting his paycheck last Thursday, Udin Salazar-Lopez, 21, quickly cashed it and mailed the money to his native Guatemala to help out his wife and their 16-month-old daughter Angela.
But now, family and friends are trying to raise money to send Salazar-Lopez back home to be buried by his family.
Salazar-Lopez died yesterday at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston four days after he was pulled from the bottom of Sharpners Pond in North Andover.
"His big dream was to save up enough money to buy a nice home for his young wife and his little girl," said his aunt, Iris Ortega of Methuen, as she sat on the porch outside a Methuen home last night with family members and relatives to mourn.
"He was really devoted to his kid," she said. "He just wanted to give her a nice home and a better education. As tough as it is up here, it's three or four times tougher back there. But his dream was to go back there and make them a better life."
The dream ended some time before 7 p.m. on Friday. Salazar-Lopez was submerged in the pond for at least 20 minutes before rescue workers got to him.
"They told us from the beginning that he was completely brain dead — that his brain had been deprived of oxygen for too long," Ortega said, recalling conversations with doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where her nephew survived for four days before passing away early yesterday morning.
"But we'd talk to him. He opened his eyes and cried. We thought he heard us. And last night (Monday), his mom and five siblings back in Guatemala go to talk to him on the cell phone for the last time. We think he heard them," she said.
The July Fourth outing at Sharpners Pond was meant to be a birthday gathering for Ottoniel Salazar, who had turned 45 two days earlier. Instead, it ended tragically, as he watched his son struggle in unfamiliar waters, cling to his leg and then sink.
"He was a great person, a best friend, a perfect son and a very committed dad," Salazar said last night, after returning from the North Andover pond with friends and relatives who put flowers and a cross at the site and prayed.
But Salazar, while fighting back the tears, expressed gratitude for the North Andover police and firefighters who made a valiant effort to save his son's life.
"Knowing that they were risking their lives and went ahead — that showed what kind of spirit they have, and God bless them for that. I'm very thankful for what they did for my son. And I hope if their kids ever need any help, people do the same thing for them as they did for my son," he said.
"They're really our heroes," Ortega said.
"You know, they could have waited for the ambulance to arrive and seen what happened. But they jumped in there and tried to help. That's something to be thankful for the rest of our lives," she said.
Salazar-Lopez came to the United States about a year ago. He had been living with his father in a Jackson Street apartment. The two men were also co-workers at Creative Landscaping based in New Hampshire. When Salazar-Lopez wasn't working or spending time with family and friends, he played soccer with Jalapa-Junior, a Lawrence team.
Salazar lamented that his son never got to wear the new uniform with number 15 that he recently received. He was scheduled to play on Sunday. There was talk of canceling the games out of respect for the fallen player, but several games went on in an effort to raise money for the family, his father said.
Ortega said last Friday's trip to the North Andover pond was the first one for Salazar-Lopez. Most of the people who attended were aware the pond was posted for "no swimming." But they said they were unaware of the real dangers since other people were known to swim there.
Ortega said she hopes North Andover authorities will take steps to put more visible and effective signage at the pond site, with a stiffer warning.
"If something can be done, we'd like to see a better sign — something that can be put down and explain why it's so dangerous there — so everybody can get a second chance that my nephew didn't have," Ortega said.
Farrah Funeral Home in Lawrence is in charge of local arrangements, which include a special memorial service.
Meanwhile, Citizens Bank has set up a special account as family and friends try to raise money to cover the costs of sending Salazar-Lopez's body back to Guatemala.
