United States President Barack Obama's aunt died this week at the age of 61 while seeking asylum in the U.S. after years of living here illegally.

Obama's aunt Zeituni Onyango fought hard to become a citizen, and perhaps fought hard for her health as well while living in South Boston. Onyango had cancer and respiratory problems; in January of this year, she took ill. Onyango died in her sleep on Tuesday while living in South Boston's Kindred Nursing and Rehabilitation Harborlights nursing home facility, the Boston Globe reports. According to reports, between 2010 and 2012 Onyango was granted asylum.

Onyango's death perhaps hits closer to home for Obama as he battles for immigration reform.

Onyango was born in Kenya on May 29, 1952, under a mango tree, and delivered by a midwife without medical care, The New York Times reports. She was the half-sister of the president's late father, Barack Obama Sr., who died in a car crash in 1982. While living in Kenya, Onyango was taken in by Obama's father because she was leaving an abusive relationship and had no money.

Here is a timeline of Onyango's immigration and asylum related events:

1988: During Obama's visit to Kenya, which he mentions in his book Dreams of My Father, the president says that Onyango, was his guide to some painful family history.

2000: Onyango moves to Boston on a valid visa, according to Boston Globe.

2002: Onyango seeks political asylum. Margaret Wong, Onyango's lawyer for her asylum case, argues that if she is forced to return to Kenya she would face undue attention and danger because of her nephew's fame. (As part of the conditions to be granted asylum, one must show that they would face persecution in their home countries.)

2004: Onyango is denied political asylum, and she is subsequently ordered to leave, but she refuses. Onyango later tells CBS Boston that she "could not afford to leave the US while her asylum request was denied." Onyango reportedly lived in a homeless shelter for two years before being assigned public housing.

According to CBS News, Onyango's refusal to leave the US represented an "administrative, noncriminal violation of immigration law, meaning that such cases are handled outside the criminal court system. Reportedly, estimates of these kinds of cases vary, but many experts believe there are more than 10 million such immigrants in the US."

2004-2008: It is estimated that between 2004 to 2008, Onyango was living in anonymity in South Boston, just before Obama's presidential election, Associated Press reports. To escape media scrutiny, Onyango moved to Cleveland, and it was there she was welcomed by fellow Kenyans who helped her to get a green card.

---

During Obama's campaign, he and his aides claimed they were unaware that Onyango was in the U.S. illegally, but that the "laws in her situation should be followed." Obama's aides also stated that they would not intervene. The New York Times reports that Onyango and Obama were hardly in contact since she fought to immigrate. However, Wong stated that Onyango did visit Obama during his time as Senator for Illinois, 1997-2004.

Onyango was reportedly "good with computers," and she was a published author. In 2012, Onyango published her memoir, Tears of Abuse. In it, she wrote that the "Obama clan is like the Baobab tree; the strength lies in its roots."

Onyango, however, was not the only relative of Obama to have had trouble with immigration. The president's Kenyan-born half uncle, Onyango Obama, ignored a deportation order in 1992, but was granted permission to stay in the U.S. last December, CBS News reported in December 2013. Wong was also part of his legal team.

Related