As the story of John O’Connor’s friendship with a lady in his nursing home (described as “romantic” attachment by some) evolves in the news, more information about this type of relationship between Alzheimer’s patients is being publicized.  Not that anyone has tried to hide it.  It’s just sometimes difficult for some family members, particularly the spouse, to realize the person with Alzheimer’s has forgotten them.
Sometimes the Alzheimer’s patient is living in a world previous to the time they met their spouse.  So that person they form an attachment for may remind them of an earlier girl or boy friend or someone they wish they’d dated.  It they …read more

  I’ll have to admit, when this story first broke, I wondered if an overeager reporter and her publisher were capitalizing on finding someone with a famous name who had formed an attachment with another person in a nursing home.  These relationships are not uncommon, but apparently it’s not well known because family members often are reluctant to talk about it.
However, more is coming out about how the O’Connor news story evolved.  Veronica Sanchez, the reporter, even interviewed Scott O’Connor, a son, and had the family’s approval to go forward with the story.
Ms. Sanchez accidentally discovered this story when she was working on a more general one …read more