The 63-year-old is hoping she and her two grandchildren can get out of the cubicle apartment they share in their Wan Chai neighborhood, but she has no idea how long it will take.

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Two years later, she looks wan and imprisoned. (That marriage, his last, ended in 1959.) Like many sitters, Freud's often look forlorn.

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She has also extended a public podium to Wan Azizah Ismail, who--shades of the young Cory--is struggling to fill the political shoes of her jailed husband, Malaysia's ex-Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

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She does not bother to put make-up on her wan face, with its dark-circled eyes and down-turned mouth.

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Large crowds have turned up to hear Wan Azizah Ismail, Mr Anwar's wife, in the belief that she will stand in the general election, possibly in Dr Mahathir's own constituency in the state of Kedah.

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