As former President Jimmy Carter nears his 100th birthday, his physical health is diminished, but he remains interested in current news — especially politics — and is aware of the well-wishes coming his way after 19 months in home hospice care.
“He’s remarkably, basically, in the same position he’s been in since he went into hospice,” grandson Jason Carter said last week during a meeting at the Carter Center in Atlanta. “… And when he went into hospice, we thought it was a matter of days, weeks, really. And, of course, we’re not in charge. But …what I can tell you is, he is still experiencing this world.”
On Sept. 17, Jimmy Carter was celebrated at an Atlanta concert to benefit the work of the Carter Center. The event at the historic Fox Theatre, “Jimmy Carter 100: A Celebration in Song,” included the iconic Athens group The B-52s and Chuck Leavell, a keyboardist who has played with the Rolling Stones and the Allman Brothers Band.
Carter, who turns 100 on Oct. 1, entered hospice care in February 2023.
He is receiving care and visits from family at his south Georgia home in Plains. One interest is the current presidential campaign. Jason Carter said the former president told relatives he looks forward to voting. “I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris,” he said in August to his son, Chip.
He is still able to enjoy his favorite foods. The Carter Center’s chief executive, Paige Alexander, told the AJC’s “Politically Georgia” in May the former peanut farmer was “enjoying peanut butter ice cream.”
Alexander also gave an update on Tuesday’s Politically Georgia. In addition to visits with family, she said Carter also watches some TV, including the recent Democratic National Convention and is “eating like a champ.”
“He is as engaged and age-appropriate as a 99-year-old would be,” Alexander said.
The Carter Center is asking for birthday wishes through a link on its website and social media platforms.
After his 99th birthday, Jason Carter showed his grandfather a mosaic created from the birthday greetings that year.
“And I said, Paw Paw, we got these birthday wishes for you. And he said, ‘From who?’” Jason Carter recalled. “I said, Paw Paw, there were like 20,000 people. And … I said, they were from over 100 countries. And he thought about that for a beat, and he teared up, and he said, ‘100 countries.’ You know, and you can just imagine that someone who’s lived for 99 years, who’s visited more than 100 countries, who’s done the things that he’s done, whose legacy is carried on by the people who are sitting up here.”
“He still just had a moment about what that meant. And so, while it seems like a little thing, I do think that it would be great to send him the birthday wishes, and it certainly was meaningful for him last year, and, look — for his 101st birthday, who knows what we’ll do — but I think this is good for now.”
Jason Carter, a former state senator and Democratic gubernatorial nominee, chairs the Carter Center Board of Trustees.
– Alex Sanz and Natalie Mendenhall contributed to this report.
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