"And on the roughest days, it's just sad. "And now there's less of the sort of managed script because there's really less there. But you'll hear with any Alzheimer's family that you have good days and bad days. In general, she's just so happy to have a family visit and (will say), 'Oh, don't leave, and tell me more – what's going on?'"Įarlier in her journey, Scott says, his mom would ask the same questions again and again because she liked hearing the family fill her in. Sometimes if she'll get a shake or something (and say) 'Yeah, I'm shaking.' And she'd be frustrated because she's got a shake, but she's just pleasant to be with most of the time. Dad had anger and depression, not all the time, but some serious bouts of it that were really hard on the rest of the family, witnessing him suffer so," Scott says.
#SUPREME COURT SANDRA DAY O CONNOR FREE#
"Her journey with Alzheimer's has been free of the anger and depression that many get. So Scott has seen both parents' experience. They had married in 1952, after meeting at Stanford Law School. John Jay O'Connor died from complications of Alzheimer's in 2009.
Sandra Day O'Connor and her husband, John Jay O'Connor III, when Sandra Day O'Connor was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1981. And Dad could hand it to them as they walked in at the beginning of the party when they first arrived." That's easy to get a list of what everybody's favorite cocktail is. "Mom and Dad would equip the bar, and Dad knew everybody's favorite drink," Scott says. She got a lot accomplished by being a nice person."Īt least twice during the legislative session, O'Connor would host big potluck parties in her home. "Maybe not on that bill, but another bill and you'd trade. You found ways to make them look good," Scott says. "If you needed to get an agreement on a bill in the Legislature for somebody who was inclined to vote against it, you didn't insult them or make them look bad.
She rose to the rank of Senate majority leader, making her the first woman in the nation to hold that position. O'Connor served as an Arizona state senator from 1969 to 1974. "Her big strategy was kill them with kindness," Scott says. One of the reasons the O'Connor House was saved was its history as a place for politicians to come together for civil discourse – and quite a few parties.
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