HELEN Humphrey, a woman who is credited with bringing Downs Syndrome out of the darkness and into acceptance, through the association she founded, has died.

Humphrey, 84, the wife of former government minister John Humphrey, died at her Glencoe home, shortly before midnight on Wednesday.

John Humphrey, who is expected to turn 90 on February 19, told Newsday they were in bed together around 11.30 pm, when she started coughing.

He said she went to the bathroom, a few steps away from their bed, and continued coughing.

'I though she was getting a flu or a virus. She came out of the bathroom telling me she could not breathe. She was just able to get on the bed when she died,' he said, pausing and sniffling with grief.

'She had cardiac arrest. She had heart surgery a couple years ago, but she was not doing what the doctor told her to do. So, it looks like she did not mind going.

'I was there with her. We were together for 66 years. We had a wonderful life, but it was not easy with me being in opposition politics for a long time and not treated too well.'

He said she stood by his side and suffered along with him when he was sent to the St Ann's Psychiatric Hospital because of his 'eccentricity.'

'The psychiatrist told her nothing was wrong with me, that I was way ahead of my time and to take me home.

'It was also upsetting for her when I was held hostage in the Red House during the 1990 coup attempt and she was getting reports of what they were doing to me.

'But Helen was a wonderful wife and mother to our three children, one we lost at infancy, a lovely little girl.' Their two surviving children are Joanna and Johnny.

Former journalist and author of John Humphrey's biography Zorina Shah, recalled the passion the two shared from the time they met when they were merely teenagers.

From interviews with her, Shah said, she learnt John had to wait until Helen was 18, in the month of October, to propose and marry her in that same month.

With her grandfather owning real estate in Grenada, Shah repeated a story, which is in the biography, of their honeymoon in that Island at the same time actress Joan Collins was filming the movie Island in the Sun.

'She told me the actress took a liking to John and began flirting with him, and she reminded him that the Irish actor Stephen Boyd, who was also on the set and spent some time with them, was also handsome and charming.'

Shah recalled Helen's many stories about relationships with disgraced politician Johnny O'Halloran and his rich baritone voice, the late prime minister Dr Eric Williams and his daughter Erica, as well as with Jean Miles of the gas station racket fame.

She also recalled Helen's social conscience, which led to the formation of the National Association of Downs Syndrome (NADS) when her granddaughter Rebecca was diagnosed with the disease.

'At that time, people hid their Down Syndrome children, but Helen brought about an awareness and acceptance,