Thirty-two years ago, Justice Clarence Thomas was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the 95th associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

The 75-year-old native of Pin Point, Georgia, was nominated by former President George H.W. Bush to succeed Justice Thurgood Marshall — the first African American to serve on the high court.

Thomas was confirmed by the Senate on October 15, 1991, by a vote of 52-48, the narrowest margin in a century, becoming the second African American to serve as a Supreme Court justice.

Since assuming his office on October 23, 1991, Clarence Thomas has become widely regarded as one of the most stalwart constitutionalists and originalist justices on court. Thomas is now the longest serving living justice on the Supreme Court.

Thomas’ personal story of growing up in abject poverty in the racially segregated South — being raised primarily by his grandparents — to becoming a Supreme Court justice is as remarkable as it is American. Thomas is a devout Catholic; he studied to become a priest before entering law school. He’s known to attend daily mass before heading to work, saying it gives him “the strength to do what I have to do every day.”

Day in and day out, Clarence Thomas has been — by far — one of the court’s most consistent defenders of the Constitution. In my humble opinion, Thomas is the single greatest living American.

October 15 is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day and Ashley Opliger is busy setting up for Wave of Light — a candle light vigil hosted Sunday by her non-profit, Bridget’s Cradles, to celebrate the lives of babies born into heaven.

The event, complete with 50,000 blue, pink and white lights to represent babies in heaven, “is a beautiful night to be together as a community and know we’re united in our heartbreak, but we’re also united in this hope we have to see them again,” says Opliger, who took a break from setting up the vigil to speak with the Daily Citizen.

Ashley and her husband, Matt, started Bridget’s Cradles less than a year after their daughter, Bridget, was born into heaven in October 2014. Though only 24 weeks and five days old, the Opligers could see God’s design in Bridget.

“She was fearfully and wonderfully made,” Ashley says, “Her fingernails and eyelashes — everything was formed and beautiful. She was just very tiny.”

Bridget was so small that she was swallowed by her hospital blanket, making her hard to see and hold. But, unbeknownst to Ashley, God had already provided the perfect solution. A week earlier, Ashley’s mom had been knitting a tiny blanket for her granddaughter when God inspired her to join the edges together to create a Bridget-sized cradle.

“[The little cradle] changed everything for us. It really comforted us in our grief. We felt like it was made specifically for her, and that God had given my mom this idea to cradle little Bridget …”