Jason Carter, the oldest of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s 22 grandchildren recently told Southern Living magazine the frail 99-year-old ex-commander-in-chief is “experiencing the world as best he can as he continues through this process.”
“God had other plans,” the younger Carter said about his grandfather unexpectedly remaining alive so long after beginning hospice care in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.
Rosalyn Carter died in November.
“After 77 years of marriage… I just think none of us really understand what it’s like for him right now,” said Jason Carter.
“We have to embrace that fact, that there’s things about the spirit that you just can’t understand.”
Average hospice stays around 70 days, although for many it may only be a couple of weeks.
Carter entered hospice care in February 2023.
Jason said he visited his grandfather a few weeks back, adding the watched an Atlanta Braves game, talked about the ex-president’s nonprofit Carter Center and the family.
He also asked 99-year-old how he was doing.
“I told him, I said: ‘Pawpaw, you know, when people ask me how you’re doing I say, ‘honestly I don’t know,’” recalled Jason. “And he kind of smiled and he said, ‘I don’t know, myself.’ It was pretty sweet,” he added.