In a blog post announcing the death, Branson said his mother held one last victory and managed to fight the virus, but that she spent all her energy in the process. ‘She was 96.
He said one of his sisters and his nephew were with her ‘to the end’, as well as the ‘wonderful nurses she entertained with stories from her life and lots of laughter over glasses of whiskey’.
Branson wrote a further outline of Eva’s life, saying that his mother taught his siblings the importance of hard work, not to take yourself too seriously, to treat people the way you want to be treated, of entrepreneurship and so much more.
The British billionaire said she “always worked on a project” when he was young and that she was “inventive, fearless, relentless – an entrepreneur before the word existed.”
Branson also attributes the start of the Virgin conglomerate to £ 100 his mother gave him after she sold a necklace. The name of one of Virgin Galatic’s spacecraft, VMS Eve, was named after her and that she ‘will always be my motherhood’.
Branson’s father passed away in 2011. They had three children, including his sister Lindy and Vanessa.