Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon turned 2016 presidential candidate whose life story formed the basis of a 2009 TV movie starring Cuba Gooding Jr., has been married to a woman named Lacena "Candy" Carson since 1975.

As reported in the Hill, Mrs. Carson has spoken of how tough it was to be married to the renowned brain surgeon during the early years of their union when their three sons were still growing up, saying, "Sometimes I felt like a single mom because he wasn't around most of the time." In an interview in Breitbart she did, however, qualify that she was okay with her husband working a lot, saying, “You know that when he was away, he was saving lives.”

Candy Carson's background is shaped by adversity and triumph. The 62-year-old was one of five siblings, and grew up in inner-city Detroit. The daughter of a teacher and a factory worker, she was raised in what she has described as poverty. Despite the economic hardships of her youth, she studied classical violin and even won a scholarship to Yale University where she met her future husband.

The couple have worked together on various projects together, such as founding the Carson Scholars Fund in 1994, a nonprofit organization that has over the years grown to offer scholarships in all 50 states. Mrs. Carson has also helped her husband write his motivational bestsellers “A More Perfect Union: What We the People Can Do to Reclaim Our Constitutional Liberties" and “One Vote: Make Your Voice Heard.”

The candidate's wife describes her husband’s jump into politics as a joint decision as well, saying “We noticed little things were happening in our country that weren’t really in sync with what the founding fathers would have envisioned.”