Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who died at a hospital near Tel Aviv, wept after seeing a picture of his late wife, a medical staff recalled.
Marina Lifshitz, who was Sharon's nurse at the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer in recent years, narrated the unforgettable incident.
"I came to him one morning and saw that in terms of cognitive functioning he was relatively responsive. So I took a picture of his wife Lily and showed it to him. I saw a tear roll down his cheek. It's hard to forgot that," Israeli news portal Ynetnews quoted Lifshitz as saying.
"I took care of Sharon for seven and a half years. I didn't know him when he was the Prime Minister, only as a patient. He was a hero. He was a hero before and he remained a hero as a patient," she added.
Sharon, who died yesterday at the age of 85 after being in a comatose state for the past eight years following a stroke, will be laid to rest on Monday at the Sycamore Ranch, his family farm in the Negev next to his beloved wife Lily, who died in 2000.
Sharon had been married to her for 37 years, and had often spoken of how much he missed her.
"Everything in the house at the ranch was Lily's doing," he said in an interview years ago adding, "I miss sitting and talking with her. I don't have that anymore - I miss Lily."
A short while after Sharon's death, his son Gilad arrived at the Sycamore Ranch to visit the grave of his mother.
