Let’s be honest: Virtually no one thought he would even be elected president. Or that he would forge a groundbreaking treaty in the Middle East. Or that he would win the Nobel Peace Prize. Or that he would beat cancer.
But Jimmy Carter exceeded all expectations in a life that spanned nearly a century. And so now he’s at the end again.
Mr. Carter entered hospice care a year ago Sunday, forgoing further life-prolonging treatment with the intention of returning to his simple home in Plains, Georgia, to live out his final days in comfort and peace. As it turned out, there were more final days than he or anyone around him expected.
The former president’s long farewell has defied the odds and captivated many around the world who have spent the last 12 months honoring his memory, even as he has refused to conform to anyone else’s schedule. Hospice care is intended to make the end of life easier for patients and families and is prescribed for those who have less than six months to live. About half of those admitted to hospice care do not stay longer than 17 days. A tiny fraction are still alive a year later. Mr. Carter, the only president ever to live to 99, seems destined to continue pushing the envelope.
“He’s been a record breaker for decades – the oldest living president, the longest married president,” said Jill Stuckey, a longtime friend from Plains who visits him regularly. “It was always on President Carter’s terms. This is how he lives and this is how he will die.”
His perseverance at the end could serve as a retort to those who never recognized his tenacity. “Carter once told me that he thought the biggest misconception about him was that he was weak,” said Jonathan Alter, author of “His Very Best,” a biography of Mr. Carter. “It wasn’t him as a person or as president. In truth, this slight man – known as “Peewee” as a boy – is a person of extraordinary tenacity and courage.”
Mr. Alter recalled that when Mr. Carter announced he had cancer in 2015, the former president said he was happy with what God had chosen for him before he finally overcame the disease. But even as he accepted his fate, Mr. Alter said, “He was also always very ambitious – and that ambition extends to him wanting to stay here and see what’s happening in the world.”
Mr. Carter spends his days in the one-story traveling home in Plains that he has owned for more than six decades, where he is watched over by caregivers and visited by relatives who take turns making the pilgrimage. The last time he was seen in public was in November, when he gathered to attend the memorial service for his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, who died at age 96.
He looked so frail in a wheelchair, his legs covered by a blanket and his mouth open, that it shocked friends at church and admirers watching on television. But he was determined to be there no matter what, say family members, who believe he held out as long as he did, in part to ensure that Mrs. Carter was never left alone.
“He was really honored and happy that he made it to the end with my grandmother, and that was a real treasure for him,” said Jason Carter, a grandson and board chairman of the Carter Center. “And I think that, for whatever reason, he approaches this with tremendous faith. And so he just believes that for some reason God isn’t done with him yet.”
Mr Carter said one of the most remarkable things about the last few months was that his grandfather wasn’t much different today than when he started hospice care. He doesn’t eat or drink much – he asked for coffee after Mrs. Carter’s service, a rarity these days – and he isn’t mobile or particularly talkative. But he is still clear enough to express his thoughts and absorb and appreciate information.
When Jason Carter told him that tributes and congratulations poured in from more than 100 countries on his 99th birthday last fall, the former president was deeply moved. “He had tears in his eyes,” Jason Carter said. “It was a really moving thing for him.”
Ms. Stuckey, the director of Jimmy Carter National Historic Park, said he expressed his wishes nonetheless. “I came in the other day and he was smiling and we were talking to him about a future meal and he told us exactly what he wanted for dinner the next night,” she said.
She was not surprised that many friends were impressed by his performance in Mrs. Carter’s service. “I think a lot of people were shocked that he was walking and walking, and people hadn’t seen him in a while,” she said. “When you don’t see someone for a while, it’s usually a little surprise to see them again. He may look weak, but he still has that spark in his eye and is still driven to help as many people as he can.”
Mr. Carter, a teeth-baring peanut farmer who rose from nothing to become the 39th President of the United States, left office after leaving office through decades of philanthropic activities fighting disease, negotiating conflicts, overseeing elections and Building houses for the disadvantaged makes a lasting impression. Even as he faded, he regularly asked for the latest figures on Guinea worm, a disease that affected 3.5 million people in 21 countries in Africa and Asia each year when he began combating it in 1986, but with only 13 cases was almost wiped out worldwide last year.
“Carter’s entire life was characterized by his relentlessness,” said Kai Bird, author of “The Outlier,” another biography of Mr. Carter. “So it doesn’t really surprise me that he persevered in hospice care. He is a quiet force of nature – a relentless man in life, but also at the end of life.”
Although Mr. Carter does not have a fatal underlying disease such as cancer or heart disease, he decided last February to reject further life-prolonging medical treatments in favor of hospice care, the first president to use it. His decision has increased awareness of the availability and benefits of hospice care, which focuses on relieving pain and discomfort in the final stages of life.
“The way he and his family have approached this makes this a national conversation,” said Ben Marcantonio, interim executive director of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. “At the beginning of his career we talked about it in one way, but now we talk about it in a different way. It opens up new dimensions of conversation.”
The one-year anniversary of his entry into hospice care is not celebrated like a holiday, but for Mr. Carter it happens to fall on the day before Presidents’ Day, so a discussion about his life will take place in Ms. Stuckey’s park.
However, there are mysteries for his family that no panel or biography can solve. “One of the things I’ve realized is that there are things in life and in the mind that you just can’t understand,” said Jason Carter. “I don’t know what it’s like for him at the moment. I don’t know what it’s like to face this moment the way he did last year. But it was liberating for me to know that I just don’t know. And that’s okay.”
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2024-02-17 10:06:34
www.nytimes.com