Wife of fmr. Amsterdam mayor dies after MS battle

Lidie Cohen, the wife of former Amsterdam mayor and Labour leader Job Cohen, died on Tuesday. She was 67-years-old. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1980 shortly after giving birth to their son, Jaap. They had another child, Lotje, in 1983. Nearly 14 years later, she was using a wheelchair full-time, and in later years her living situation became more and more difficult. “Sticking my head in the sand, is, for me, the best way to deal with it,” Lidie Cohen told the magazine Margriet in 2010. “If you are constantly troubled, then you will do nothing more,” she continued. “I believe I am not afraid to die; more for the time preceding it.” “It is horrible. There’s a picture of her in my office from when she was healthy,” Job Cohen told reporter Coen Verbraak in a 2006 interview. “As I look at it, I think, “Damn it, what could she have done differently in life if she had not had that fucking illness,” he said. “I know for sure that she could have been an alderman in Maastricht, and that she would have done it very well. That’s all stolen from her.” They were both ardent social democrats by the time they studied in Groningen, Parool reported. She went on to a career as a well-respected high school Dutch teacher, and as a PvdA (Labour) feminist activist.