Sandra Day O’Connor has lived a life of perseverance

Perseverance. A strong and inspiring quality that characterizes the life of my mother, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, as well as the lives of other patients and families who have experienced the devastating disease of Alzheimer’s. My mother announced her diagnosis of dementia, most likely Alzheimer’s, in 2018.

My mother knew what it was to persevere from a young age. Growing up on an arid Arizona cattle ranch the size of Rhode Island, she would not have access to running water until she moved to Texas as a young girl to attend private school.

She came from humble beginnings, and her road to becoming a civic icon in this country was paved with moments of persistence, grit and tenacity. When she joined the Arizona State Senate in the 1970s, it was a largely male-dominated body. But my mother held her own. A famous interaction with an intoxicated state legislator showed my mother’s doggedness. When she confronted the legislator about his loutish behavior, he said if she were a man he would punch her in the nose. She replied, “If you were a man, you could.”

My mother’s perseverance was never more acutely on display than when she had to care for my father, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in the early 2000s. At first, she juggled her responsibility to the court and our nation while caring for our father, John O’Connor. But after several years, when the juggling became too much, my mother made the kind of sacrifice many caregivers experience. She resigned from the job she truly loved — and which had allowed her to make a difference in the world — in order to care for her husband of 50 years until his death in 2009.

My mother has witnessed her husband, her mother, and her aunt suffer from Alzheimer’s — a ravaging disease of the mind that impacts around 50 million people worldwide. 

And now she herself suffers from dementia. She knows all too well the difficult road ahead, and how Alzheimer’s impacts not just the sufferer, but also the family. 

In 2008, my mother went before Congress to describe the life of a caregiver: “I submit to you that until you have actually stared Alzheimer’s in the face, you cannot truly understand the deep sense of frustration, fear, helplessness, and grief that accompany it. … Alzheimer’s is a family disease. It may directly attack only one member of the family, but every member of that family feels the effects. Every member loses something.” 

She called for a national commitment to finding treatment and a cure for Alzheimer’s. She has always believed that the cure will require a partnership between the government and the private sector. The amazingly rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine demonstrates what is possible when the government and the private sector focus resources and attention to find a cure for disease, and this recent success gives great hope for finding a cure for Alzheimer’s.  

Our federal government should significantly increase public funding and support basic research for Alzheimer’s, but it is equally important for private companies to perform critical research, development and innovations. Private philanthropies, such as the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, of which my mother was an honorary chair, play an important role by helping to identify the most promising areas of investment in Alzheimer’s research and getting money to the right organizations at the right time. The foundation will honor my mother and our family on April 28.

My mother once described Alzheimer’s as a “grave and growing challenge to our nation.” The numbers are staggering: 82 million people worldwide are expected to be diagnosed with dementia by 2030, and their loved ones will experience the effects of this disease firsthand. I offer my mother’s story, along with the hope for finding a cure for Alzheimer’s, as motivation for those families to persevere.

Jay O’Connor, a senior software industry executive, is one of three sons of Sandra Day O’Connor. He is managing partner at Silver Tree Associates, advisory partner at Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, and a member of the governing board for iCivics, an organization founded by his mother that champions equitable, nonpartisan civic education for students.