Former Israeli Prime MInister Ariel Sharon, known as the "Bulldozer," died at 85 after being in a coma since 2006. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Marina Lipschitz, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s nurse at the Sheba Medical Center over a period of seven years, recalled on Saturday that whenever Sharon was shown a picture of his beloved wife Lily, he would shed a tear, Israel’s Channel 2 reported on Sunday.

When Sharon suffered a massive stroke in January of 2006, the immediate prognosis was bleak. However according to Lipschitz, Israel’s 11^th Prime Minister managed to communicate in the early years of his hospitalization, Channel 2 reports.

As time passed, Sharon’s primary modes of communication were reactive, responding to questions by way of raising his eyebrows or even grabbing on to an outstretched hand.

However even during the later stages of his coma Sharon reacted to pictures of his wife Lily be shedding a tear, Lipschitz recollected.

Shortly after Sharon’s death was announced to the Israel public, nurse Lipschitz detailed her most famous patient’s final days. “Even in his last days, even in his last hours, he continued to fight like a lion,” she said.

Lipschitz also addressed the issue that has been on the mind of many Israelis over the last few days: did Sharon feel any pain during his lengthy hospitalization? “I am one hundred percent sure that he did not suffer,” Lipschitz asserted. As reported by Channel 2, the nurse went on to say that “This is my job. I know what suffering is. You can see it in the look on a patient’s face. You can definitely tell the difference between a person who is suffering and one who is not.”