(in update)
Laura Ferreira, the wife of Pedro Passos Coelho, former prime minister, died. According to what the Observer found, Laura Ferreira, 54, died during the night at the Lisbon IPO, after her state of health worsened considerably over the weekend. The funeral will take place at the end of this Tuesday afternoon, at the Cascais Funerary Center, in Alcabideche.
About 5 years ago, the physiotherapist was diagnosed with a bone tumor that would eventually reach the lungs. In December, although the clinical picture already inspired great care, Laura Ferreira was allowed to leave the Portuguese Institute of Oncology, where she was interned, to spend Christmas at home with her husband and two daughters, Teresa, 24, and Julia, 12.
Last December, Laura Ferreira was transferred from the Amadora-Sintra Hospital, where she was always accompanied, to the Lisbon IPO, after her health condition worsened. About two years ago, after thinking that the disease had been controlled, the cancer came back. Initially, he was diagnosed with an aggressive bone tumor on his knee, and in 2017, new tests showed that it had spread to his lungs.
Since then, Laura Ferreira’s health was increasingly fragile.
“I am very afraid of dying, but then there is a side that stands up and says: ‘No, you have your husband, you have your daughters and your family!’ I have to live, I have so much to do,” wrote Laura Ferreira in the biography of the former PSD leader, published in 2015.
In the authorized biography of Pedro Passos Coelho, the author, Sofia Aureliano, dedicates an entire chapter to the wife of the then prime minister and PSD leader. Ali tells how the couple received the news of the disease.
“In the summer of 2014, Laura suffered a work injury, which did not go as she should. The months went by and mobility was limited, cementing the suspicion that it could be something more serious. The worst case was confirmed. He was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, an aggressive bone tumor that forced her, and still forces her, to several chemotherapy sessions before and after surgery ”, reads in the book“ We are what we choose to be ”, published in May 2015.
[Pedro Benevides, editor de política do Observador, lembra que o Passos Coelho sempre manteve a reserva sobre a doença da mulher, mas nunca a escondeu. Ouça aqui]
In February 2015, Laura Ferreira was operated for the first time to remove the tumor at the Santa Maria Hospital, in Lisbon. Pedro Passos Coelho, despite the tight schedule of the Prime Minister, was always around during the hospitalizations, Laura said in the book, “come from wherever you come”. “Then he goes home to have dinner with his daughters. (…) This is the soft heart behind the hard shell ”, summarized Passos Coelho’s wife.
It was this heart that led Laura to fall “in love”, after a divorce and a daughter, at the age of 38. Four years later, Laura was 42 years old, Júlia was born, the couple’s daughter. In the chapter dedicated to his wife, “Laura, Porto Seguro”, the former Prime Minister says that both had “a very intimate and very strong relationship.”
Laura Maria Garcês Ferreira was born in Bissau, lived in Mindelo and Coimbra. He married Passos Coelho in 2004.
In 2014, Passos Coelho, accompanied by Laura Ferreira, during the closing session of the XIII National Congress of TSD – Social Democratic Workers held at the Sports Pavilion.
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Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has already released a note on the Presidency’s website where he presents Passos Coelho “the most heartfelt and friendly condolences at this moment of huge loss of his wife”. The President of the Republic recalls Laura Ferreira as “someone who left a trace of humanity and community service in Portuguese society”.
Also in a note of regret released this morning, the PSD leadership writes that “it was with great consternation that the Social Democratic Party received the news of the death of Laura Ferreira, wife of Pedro Passos Coelho, former prime minister and former president of the PSD ”.
The party also recalls that Laura was “a figure very cherished by the whole social-democratic family” and guarantees that “she misses those who have lived with her over the years”.
The short communiqué ends with the expression of “feeling sorry”: “The leadership of the Social Democratic Party, in the figure of its President, Rui Rio, expresses to Pedro Passos Coelho and the rest of the family his most sorry feeling at this time”.
In 2012, Laura Ferreira and Passos Coelho at a reception at the Prime Minister’s official residence
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