true love

I read an article in People magazine today. I know, my wife bought it, I wanted the National Enquirer that told whether this or that celebrity was gay or not. I'm not sure if the opinion is that it is a good or bad thing anymore, and as they say, any publicity is good publicity, but I hope I'm never on a cover with that title. Well, there was an article in the back, behind all the junk about stars and what they're wearing and who they're seeing and used to see and have procreated with and the progeny thereof, etc., that struck my fancy.
At first, from the title "Her Husband's New Love", I thought, "here we go again, a cheating husband, a scorned ex Supreme Court Justice. But the very short story, tucked between stupid crap like Wheel of Fortune's 25th anniversary and Wayne Newton's heart problem keeping him from "Dancing with the Stars" (funny, I thought it was his dancing that kept him out of that), was about Sandra Day O'Connor and her husband. He has Alzheimer's, she resigned from one of the most prestigious and unassailably secure jobs in the world to take care of him, her husband of 54 years. Wow. I'm a fan already. She deserves praise and recognition for that, more than on page 129. But since she didn't kill him or try to kill him, and since he didn't meet someone online and leave her, it's in the back. But it's a great story.
True love. Jesus said "Greater love hath no man than this, to lay down his life for his friends". At first you think He's talking about dying, and I suppose He was/is, but laying down a life while living is maybe harder. See my wife's blog at feedingthespirit.blogspot.com and read more of that on today's post. Well, Mrs. O'Connor's hubby, the one with Alzheimer's, has moved into a facility where he gets the care he needs around the clock. This is not a copout for her, to care for patients like this requires more than just a loving spouse, and I'm sure this place was well researched before she sent him there. And she visits him there a lot. Heck, she quit her job to help take care of him. So, when she visits, he doesn't remember her. Doesn't know they've been married for over half a century, or that she was one of the most powerful women in the world. She's just a lady who comes to visit. And he's got a girlfriend. Yes, that's probably why People picked up on it. He's got a girlfriend he met in this facility. When Justice O'Connor goes to dinner with him, he often brings the "other woman". Does the Judge go bonkers and demand separate facilities or a restraining order for this hussy? No, she approves of it. She understands that he doesn't know her and what he is doing, and she cares more about him than about herself. That is laying one's life down for a friend. That's true love. I'm sure there are many stories like this around, but unfortunately, they don't get publicity because we want "dirty laundry" as Glenn Frey or Don Henley sang, it was one of those Eagles.
True love. What a concept. What a visible example in this day of wanton selfishness of which I'm as guilty as the next guy to look at the car wrecks and divorces and arrests and addictions instead of the good stuff. Jack Johnson sings a song "Where did all the good people go". It's real good.
Way to go, Judge. If I published People, you'd be on the cover.