Cyprus former first lady dies after illness

Former first lady of Cyprus, Irene Lila Clerides, died Wednesday in hospital in the eastern coastal town of Larnaca after a long illness. She was 86.

Indian-born Lila Clerides met her husband Glafcos, a World War II veteran of the Royal Air Force, in the late 1950s, when he was studying in London to become a lawyer.

They married and moved to Cyprus just after the armed struggle had started to gain independence from British Colonial rule.

Soon after independence in 1960, Glafcos Clerides got involved in politics with the soft-spoken Lila constantly by his side. He presided over parliament and stepped in as acting president when Archbishop Makarios escaped a coup and the Turkish invasion in 1974.

Clerides later established the Democratic Rally (DISY) in 1976 which is presently in opposition after he lost the presidential elections in 2003.

During his last year in office he remarried Lila, this time in a Greek Orthodox church after she was baptised Irene (Peace).

Family doctor Joseph Kassios, who had last seen Lila Clerides on Tuesday night at their seaside home of Meneou, wanted to move her to Nicosia, but he told reporters that she had been facing health problems over the past month, after surviving many illnesses in recent years that had forced her to withdraw from public life.

Glafcos Clerides arrived at Larnaca General Hospital visibly heart-broken, while their daughter, Kate, was in the ambulance with her mother.

The funeral will be held on Friday in Nicosia.