‘I MUST STAY STRONG'

Patricia de Lille opens up about the heartache of losing her husband, Edwin, and looks back on the happy life they shared

- JANE VORSTER

IT’S the first thing that catches your eye as you walk into her lounge at home – the framed portrait of the man who for 49 years was Patricia de Lille’s husband, soulmate and most loyal supporter.

“I put him there so he can smile at me whenever I come into the room and then I can smile back,” the politician says with an affectionate chuckle as she gazes at the picture of Edwin de Lille (72).

Then she turns serious.

“You know, I still can’t believe he’s gone. It’s been a month and I don’t think it’s yet dawned on me,” Patricia (70) says.

After taking time off to mourn Edwin’s passing, she now finally feels ready to talk about what they went through over the past year as his health steadily declined.

Unbeknown to many of her colleagues, while Patricia was juggling her responsibilities as minister of public works and infrastructure in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet and leader of the Good Party, she was also her husband’s carer.

Since 2012 his health had been up and down as a result of a series of small strokes. Yet somehow Eddie, as she calls him, always managed to rally and was back doing what he loved best – looking after his wife and their household in Pinelands, Cape Town. But in February last year, after having his gall bladder removed, he suffered another major blow when he caught a hospital bug and developed pneumonia.