Former President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter are entering their “final chapter” together, their grandson said in a brief health update Saturday.
After a series of brief hospital stays in late 2022, the former governor of Georgia decided to forego medical treatment and enter hospice, The Carter Center in Atlanta announced in February. The 39th U.S. president, who served from 1977 to 1981, had dealt with repeated falls and several health crises in recent years, including an extended bout with metastatic melanoma in 2015, but did not say what had caused his recent hospital visits.
“He’s still fully Jimmy Carter,” Josh Carter, 39, told People magazine. “He’s just tired. I mean, he’s almost 99 years old, but he fully understands [how many well wishes he’s received] and has felt the love.”
Since Carter began hospice care, “there’s always somebody” at the modest Plains, Georgia ranch house that the couple built in 1961, said Josh. “My grandparents have always been the entertainers,” he said. “But now we’re kind of the ones having to entertain. It’s different, it’s just a different era.”
The former first lady, whose dementia diagnosis was revealed in May, just celebrated her 96th birthday on Friday.
Just as the former president earned public praise for his forthrightness about his cancer, which brought attention to new, life-saving treatments, the center said it hoped that “sharing our family’s news [about dementia] will increase important conversations at kitchen tables and in doctor’s offices around the country.”
Josh said his grandmother “still knows who we are, for the most part — that we are family,” and that she was able to sign off on the press release that announced her condition in May. And though he said it’s “gotta be hard” for the 39th president to see his wife’s health deteriorate, he added that “they are still holding hands … it’s just amazing.”
“They’ve experienced everything that you can together,” he said. “I think the beautiful thing is that they are still together.” Last month, the Carters celebrated their 77th wedding anniversary.
“Odds are I’m gonna lose my grandfather before my grandmother,” Josh said. “He’s in hospice care and she’s not, and it’s just math.”
Carter endorsed President Joe Biden in 2020, calling him his “first and most effective” supporter in the Senate and noting their longstanding friendship. In March, Biden revealed that his predecessor had asked him to deliver his eulogy.
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