'I am no longer able to participate in public life': Sandra Day O'Connor reveals dementia diagnosis
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Twelve years after leaving the Supreme Court to help her husband cope with Alzheimer’s disease, former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has announced in an open letter that she, too, is facing the beginnings of dementia, and will be retreating from the spotli'I am no longer able to participate in public life': Sandra Day O'Connor reveals dementia diagnosis
Twelve years after leaving the Supreme Court to help her husband cope with Alzheimer’s disease, former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has announced in an open letter that she, too, is facing the beginnings of dementia, and will be retreating from the spotlight. Friends and fellow Americans, I want to share some personal news with you. Some time ago, doctors diagnosed me with the beginning stages of dementia, probably Alzheimer’s disease. As this condition has progressed, I am no longer able to participate in public life. Since many people have asked about my current status and activities, I want to be open about these changes, and while I am still able, share some personal thoughts. The letter comes just one day after the Associated Press confirmed that she was having “challenges with her short-term memory.” O’Connor, now 88, has not appeared in public for more than two years. “When she hit about 86 years old she decided that it was time to slow things down, that she’d accomplished most of what she set out to do in her post-retirement years, that she was getting older physically and her memory was starting to be more challenging, so the time came to dial back her public life,” said Jay O’Connor. His mother is no longer doing interviews. As the first woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court, O’Connor has long been a hero and role model to women and girls across the nation. Appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1981, O’Connor remained the only woman on the bench of nine until 1993, when she was joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Read more