Rona Ramon, the wife of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, has died at the age of 54.
Ramon, a practitioner of holistic medicine, had been battling pancreatic cancer.
Rona Ramon (left) visits a school in Modiin named after her husband, Ilan Ramon, along with two NASA astronauts in February 2008 (photo credit: Flash90)
Ilan Ramon became Israel’s first person in space when he blasted off aboard the Columbia in 2003, but perished when the shuttle broke up upon re-entry weeks later.
Ilan Ramon (Wikimedia Commons)
Ramon’s son Assaf, a fighter pilot like his father, died in 2009 during a training mission.
After her husband and son died, Ramon set up a foundation in their memory and counseled others who were coping with tragedy, becoming a well-recognized public figure.
“We will never forget how you built from out of the ruins, how you endowed meaning in infinite pain, how your creativity filled the never-ending void,” President Reuven Rivlin and his wife Nechama say in a statement.
“Rona stood bravely after the deaths of her husband Ilan and son Assaf — our adored pilots. She fought cancer with the same bravery,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara say in a statement.
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From the Liveblog of
Monday, December 17, 2018
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