I’ll keep this brief because in many ways I think that it’s such a private and intimate story that it feels a bit obscene to delve into it too far.

USA Today ran a story today looking briefly at Justice O’Connor’s life after she stepped down from the bench. Sandra Day gave up her seat on the high court to care for her husband who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

I was lucky enough to have met my great grandmother, whose husband I’m named after, before she passed. She was in very late stages of the disease at that time and had to be constantly reminded that she was in the United States where she had lived most of her life, not Russia where she was born. I watched my grandfather slowly slip away into a fog, appearing for a shorter moment each Christmas. It’s very hard to watch your loved ones slowly fade away and equally painful for them to realize they don’t know their own children and grandchildren any more.

Therefore, I can understand how painful it must be to watch your spouse slowly forget who you are and move on, not because they don’t love you but because they don’t remember any of the times you’ve shared any more. In a way it’s one of the most tragic diseases mankind has known. It takes a special sort of toughness and caring to be able to be glad that your husband has found happiness in that tragedy, even if it isn’t with you. This is a story that would be twice as tragic nine times out of ten. It’s a real American story that many families relate to but few talk about. It’s a gift to find a person who is living it and willing to share on such a public stage.