Wife of Israeli president Sonia Peres dies in Tel Aviv

Sonia Peres, or Sonia Gal as she preferred to be called in recent years, passed away in her sleep on Thursday at age 87.

According to her son-in-law Professor Rafi Walden who is deputy director general at Sheba Medical Center, she was found by one of her grandchildren. Walden, his voice breaking with emotion, told Israel Radio that Sonia Peres was a wonderful mother, grandmother and great grandmother, a noble woman who was devoted to her family, none of whom had yet internalized what it meant to lose her, according to Jerusalem Post.

In 2007, when Shimon Peres moved into the President's Residence, Sonya Peres chose to remain in the family home in Tel Aviv.

Sonya Peres moved to prestate Israel from Poland in 1927 at the age of 4 and met her husband shortly afterward in the Ben Shemen Youth Village.

She served as a nurse in the British army, working in an army hospital near Cairo and later as a driver for the army throughout Europe.

Sonya and Shimon Peres married in May 1945, and were the founders of Kibbutz Alumot. They had three children, Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports.