Bernie Sanders’ daughter-in-law died over the weekend at age 46. Rainè Riggs was recently diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer and passed away on Saturday, according to the Lee & Martin Funeral Home in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania. She starting feeling sick about three weeks ago, according to her obituary, and doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong. She was eventually diagnosed with cancer and died just two days later.
Riggs was married to Sanders’ son, Levi Sanders, who attempted to follow in his father’s footsteps with an unsuccessful congressional campaign in 2018. Riggs was a neuropsychologist who met Levi when the two were working at an emergency food shelter in Vermont, according to her obituary. She attend Harvard and Brown Universities and owned Geriatric Psychology in Windsor, Vermont.
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She also served as a volunteer in the days after the attacks of 9/11, providing counseling to first responders and the families of victims.
“How do you go on day by day when your heart just keeps breaking over and over? How do you get out of bed in the morning when every breath you take is so painful you just want to cover your head with your blanket and hide away from the world?,” her obituary reads. “How can the laughter and smiles of three children heal your heart while at the same time you are crying? How can the world ever be the same when it said goodbye to such a beautiful soul? It is simple…. our world will never be the same.”
The obituary shares other fond family memories of Riggs.
“The story of the day she came home from the hospital was always a family favorite as she was accidentally dropped on her head on grandma’s sidewalk,” it reads. “We always laughed and said that knock to the head is what made her so brilliant.”
Her passing came just after Bernie Sanders was discharged from the hospital after suffering a heart attack.
“I want to thank the doctors, nurses, and staff at the Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center for the excellent care that they provided,” Sanders said in a statement last Friday. “After two and a half days in the hospital, I feel great, and after taking a short time off, I look forward to getting back to work.”
Riggs and Sanders have three children together, Sunnee, Ryleigh and Grayson.
