Thousands attend funeral of wife of Israeli President Shimon Peres

Fri, 21 Jan 2011

Tel Aviv - Eulogized by her husband, and accompanied on her last journey by thousands of mourners, Sonia Peres, the wife of Israeli President Shimon Peres, was buried near Tel Aviv Friday, a day after she died in her sleep aged 87.

"My love for her will remain in my heart until I die," the president said of his wife of 67 years.

He said that when he first met Sonia 73 years ago at the Ben-Shemen youth village south-east of Tel Aviv, "I knew that it was love at first sight."

"She loved the country. She loved the people. She did most of her work in secret," he said, in remarks broadcast live over the radio. "She went to clean floors at a number of institutions for children with special needs or hospitals."

Although married to one of Israel's leading and longest-serving politicians and statesmen, Sonia's reluctance to share in her husband's limelight was legendary and the couple rarely appeared together at public functions.

She did not move to the president's official residence in Jerusalem when Shimon Peres was elected president in 2007, but instead remained living at the couple's apartment in Oppenheimer street in an upscale Tel Aviv neighborhood.

It was there that her grandson discovered her dead late Thursday morning.

Peres is said to have been shattered by Sonia's death, and according to media reports, has been teary-eyed and uncommunicative since he was told of her passing.

The funeral was attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni, Defense Mister Ehud Barak, and a host of other top Israeli politicians and officials.

It was held, at her request, at Ben-Shemen, and not at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, where Israeli leaders and dignitaries are usually laid to rest.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/363488,israeli-president-shimon-peres.html.