Jadwiga Kaczynska, the mother of the late President Lech Kaczynski and his identical twin brother Jaroslaw, the leader of Poland’s main opposition conservative party Law and Justice (PiS), died at the age of 86.

The death of Kaczynska, who had been ill for several years, was announced Thursday by her surviving son, Jaroslaw.

Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski were activists in the democracy struggle that helped topple communism in 1989.

From 2006-2007 the two simultaneously held the country's two top political jobs, with Lech as president and Jaroslaw as prime minister.

When Lech was killed in a 2010 plane crash in Russia along with his wife and 94 others, including many of the country’s top political and military leaders, Kaczynska, who was in hospital in critical condition was spared the tragic news for several weeks until she got better.

Kaczynska has been credited with shaping their sons’ deeply conservative and patriotic views, one that is marked by deep suspicion of Poland’s historic foes Germany and Russia.