Nelson Mandela's Wife Graça Machel Thanks World For 'Love, Comfort And Hope'

Nelson Mandela's wife Graça Machel has issued a statement saying that messages of support the family has been sent from around the world have helped "lighten the burden of anxiety; bringing us love, comfort and hope".
Mrs Machel, the widowed Mozambican first lady who married Mr Mandela on his 80th birthday, said the family had been deluged with letters, text messages, phone calls, tweets, Facebook messages, emails, cards and flowers.
She added that "in particular, the voices of children in schools or singing outside our home" had brought the family great comfort.
"We have felt the closeness of the world and the deepest meaning of strength and peace," she said in a statement issued through the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, the foundation he set up to safeguard his legacy and look after his archive.
She gave no update on the condition of her 94-year-old husband, who has spent nine days in hospital after being admitted for a reoccurring lung condition.
President Jacob Zuma on Sunday said Mr Mandela remained in a serious condition, but doctors have said that improvements he has made have been sustained over the last two days and that the former president "continues to engage with family".
Mrs Machel said she had been reminded of the difference her husband, who is often referred to by his clan name "Madiba", made to the lives of others since he had been in hospital.
"Madiba once said: 'What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made in the lives of others.'
"I have thought of his words on each occasion the world stood with him, making a difference to him, in his healing," she said.
"Our gratitude is difficult to express. But the love and peace we feel give yet more life to the simple "Thank you!"
Mrs Machel cancelled a planned appearance at a London hunger summit and flew home when her husband was admitted to Pretoria's Heart Hospital early last Saturday. Since then, she is thought to have maintained an almost constant presence at his bedside. He has also been visited several times by his former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and some of his many grandchildren.
The hospital admission is his third so far this year and his fourth since January 2011 with lung infections.