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Former President Jimmy Carter has “no change” since entering hospice care in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, 16 months ago, but he doesn’t wake up every day feeling sick, his grandson said.
Carter, the longest-serving former president in US history, is “experiencing the world as much as I can as I continue this process” following the death of his wife, Rosalynn Carter, in November 2023, his grandson Jason, 48, said. Southern Living last week.
Jason is the eldest of the former president and first lady’s 22 grandchildren.
“After 77 years of marriage, I don’t think any of us can truly understand what my husband is feeling right now,” Jason said. “We have to accept that there are some things we just won’t understand emotionally.”
Jason recalled telling his grandfather he struggled with how to respond when asked about the president’s condition: “You know, Grandpa, when people ask you, ‘How are you?’ you say, ‘I honestly don’t know.'” Jason remembers Carter smiling and saying, “I don’t know either.”
Jason told the magazine that while it initially seemed like he would only have a few more days to spend with his grandfather after he entered hospice care in February 2023, “God had other plans.”
According to 2020 data from the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, the average length of stay in hospice care was 97 days, but the median was 18 days.
Carter, 99, is back in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, where he remains in hospice care. “This was the place that gave him the most support and the only place he was able to be at this time in his life,” his grandson said. “This was home to him in every sense of the word and he truly cherished those times and the support.”
Jason added: “There’s no other place in the world where he’d feel at ease than the Plains.”