On Thursday, Dianne Feinstein cast her final vote in the Senate on a measure to prevent an impending government shutdown.

Hours later she was

gone.dead.//Mark and Millie ok’dlm//

That last public act is fitting for California’s legendary U.S. senator.

Her life was dedicated to politics and public service, words she used with sincerity and without any irony.

In reality, Feinstein actually had no other life outside of government, which explains why she remained in office at age 90, a shell of her old self, long after her mental and physical incapacitation.

should have forced her retirement.

It was undoubtedly selfish, although it should be noted that Feinstein was conveniently re-elected at age 85, when her diminished condition was clearly visible to voters.

There was another admirable side to that stubbornness and refusal to give up: a determination and an unsinkable resilience that carried Feinstein through a life of maelstrom.

A nightmarishly abusive childhood. Widowhood at a relatively young age. A recall attempt. An attempted murder. Failed attempts at office and a political career came to an unremarkable end, until in the blink of an eye they didn’t.

Feinstein was planning to leave politics on the day in November 1978 that San Francisco Mayor George Moscone was shot and killed along with Harvey Milk, her colleague on the Board of Supervisors. As chairman of the board, Feinstein took on the job she had twice been unable to win on her own.

It was a cinematic moment captured in a television commercial that years later put her in the running for governor of California. Feinstein narrowly lost that 1990 contest, but two years later her momentum carried her to the U.S. Senate, where she became one of the most important and consequential lawmakers the state has ever sent to Washington.

It is now easy to overlook the commanding and regal figure she once was in Feinstein’s sad and diminished final days.

Feinstein ruled San Francisco like a potentate, hands on and nails dug in. She became one of the most admired women in America according to polls and almost became the Democrats’ vice presidential candidate in 1984.

She was a pioneer for women in politics. It wasn’t just the pursuit of offices that once seemed off-limits. On the contrary, Feinstein demonstrated the potential of women in power by becoming a Senate master on issues such as crime, national defense and intelligence policy areas that were once considered beyond the purview of a female lawmaker.

She fought the NRA and won a rare victory by pushing through a 10-year ban on assault weapons. She worked through legislation that protected much of the Californian desert. She notified the CIA with a report condemning the detention and interrogation practices.

Her steel core covered a thick skin. (“Never let them see you cry” was the advice Feinstein gave and the title of veteran political reporter

Jerry Roberts used for his 1994 biography.)

Despite her San Francisco roots, Feinstein was despised by many on the political left, who considered her personally too prudish and too politically centrist. She burst onto the state political stage when she was booed at a Democratic convention for defending the death penalty. (Feinstein eventually changed her position.) Scornful liberals were among the loudest voices seeking her ouster when she fell ill.

It was a sign of changing times, which were not kind to Feinstein, and not just because of the physical and mental frailties that came with her old age.

Politics is very different than when it started. There is less room and inclination for bipartisanship. There is a performative aspect. Tweets, stunts and boastful antics are not aimed at passing legislation or achieving much of substance, but rather at scoring points and ‘owning’ the opposition.

That was never Feinstein’s strength or inclination. She regularly infuriated fellow Democrats by reaching across the aisle to work with Republicans.

Shortly after President Trump took office, Feinstein took heat from the left for perhaps suggesting, in a make-the-best-of-it concession, that if Trump did a 180 and changed, he might be a good would become president. It was a triumph of hope over experience, but showed her willingness to at least give the other side the benefit of the doubt.

Those who knew her well and few knew Feinstein better than Roberts and insisted she would never bow to pressure, no matter how strong and brutal, and leave the Senate before she chose to. In characteristic fashion, Feinstein left on her own terms, suddenly and, despite her widespread ailments, unexpectedly.

She remained determined, unwavering and, for better or worse, fixed on her course to the end.