Wednesday, November 14, 2007

O'Connors' Alzheimer's Story

I've seen a few stories about Justice Sandra Day O'Connor telling the story about her dealing with her husband's Alzheimer's disease. "John O'Connor, 77, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's 17 years ago and now lives in a Phoenix nursing facility. That fairly common story took a turn when the couple's son, Scott O'Connor, revealed that his father had fallen in love with another woman who also lives at the Huger Mercy Living Center. [Justice O'Conner] is said to be happy that her husband has found joy in his life."

Apparently that "turn" is in fact "fairly common" according to caregivers I've seen interviewed. I've not seen any mention of how similar this story is to the movie Away From Her. I can't be the only one who saw it. People were saying Julie Christie was radiant. Ok, this one from ABC news mentions it. According to Google news it's the only one of 18 stories on the topic.

I wonder if the Onion will do a story, "O'Connors' Alzheimer's Story Sets Apostrophe Record".

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Last Sunday's Week in Review had an article about it. I just find it sadly ironic that O'Connor left the Supreme Court to take care of her sick husband. She absolutely did what she had to. However the husband seems to be plenty happy without her while the rest of us are now stuck with Alito.

Howard said...

The LA Times agrees with you.