Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter sent well-wishes after entering hospice: ‘Great man’ – National | 24CA News
Dozens of well-wishers made the pilgrimage Sunday to The Carter Center in Atlanta, as prayers and reminiscences of former President Jimmy Carter’s legacy had been supplied up at his small Baptist church in Plains, Georgia, a day after he entered hospice care.
Among these paying homage was his niece, who famous the thirty ninth president’s years of service in an emotional tackle at Maranatha Baptist Church, the place Carter taught Sunday college for many years.
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“I just want to read one of Uncle Jimmy’s quotes,” Kim Fuller stated through the Sunday college morning service, including: “Oh, this is going to be really hard.”
She referenced this quote from Carter: “I have one life and one chance to make it count for something. I’m free to choose that something. … My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I can, whenever I can, for as long as I can.”
“Maybe if we think about it, maybe it’s time to pass the baton,” Fuller stated earlier than main these gathered in prayer. “Who picks it up, I have no clue. I don’t know. Because this baton’s going to be a really big one.”
Carter, at age 98 the longest-lived American president, had a current sequence of brief hospital stays. The Carter Center stated in an announcement Saturday that the thirty ninth president has now “decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention.”
In Atlanta, folks, some touring many miles, made the journey to the Carter Center to replicate on the lifetime of the previous president on a spring-like Sunday below a sunny sky.
“I brought my sons down here today to pay respect for President Carter and teach them a little bit about how great a humanitarian he was, especially in the later stages of his life,” stated James Culbertson, who drove an hour to Atlanta from Calhoun, Georgia.
The presidential library itself was closed in honor of President’s Day weekend, however folks had been nonetheless displaying as much as stroll previous the fountains and thru the gardens.
David Brummett of Frederick County, Maryland, stated he modified his Sunday morning plans when he heard news that Carter was in hospice care.
Brummett paused close to a big statue of Carter, the place somebody had positioned some violets on the base.
“Great man, great president, probably under-appreciated by those who didn’t know much about him,” Brummett stated. “People should come here to appreciate the life, and the contributions he made both during his presidency and after.”
Following Fuller’s Sunday college service at Maranatha Baptist Church, Pastor Hugh Deloach supplied prayers for the Carter household, notably for Rosalynn Carter, the spouse of the previous president.
The Carters have been married for greater than 75 years, making American historical past because the longest-married presidential couple.
“Lord, especially Mrs. Carter, and God look back on times and years that they’ve been together and Lord just strengthen her in the power of your might as well,” the pastor stated.
Others took to social media to recollect Carter, who served one time period after defeating President Gerald Ford in 1976.
“Across life’s seasons, President Jimmy Carter, a man of great faith, has walked with God. In this tender time of transitioning, God is surely walking with him,” U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, stated in a tweet.
“May he, Rosalynn & the entire Carter family be comforted with that peace and surrounded by our love & prayers.”
The Carters volunteered for many years with Habitat for Humanity, starting in 1984 and persevering with till 2020.
“All of us at Habitat for Humanity are lifting up President and Mrs. Carter in prayer as he enters hospice care,” Habitat for Humanity International CEO Jonathan Reckford stated in an announcement.
“We pray for his comfort and for their peace, and that the Carter family experiences the joy of their relationships with each other and with God in this time,” Reckford stated.
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Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times columnist, tweeted: “Prize winners and truly impressive people. Few are as truly good as Jimmy Carter, who at age 98 is now entering hospice. He leaves this planet so much better than he found it. A great, great, great man.”
Carter was a little-known Georgia governor when he started his bid for the presidency forward of the 1976 election. He went on to defeat Ford, capitalizing as a Washington outsider within the wake of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal that drove Richard Nixon from workplace in 1974.
Carter served a single, tumultuous time period and was defeated by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980, a landslide loss that finally paved the best way for his many years of world advocacy for democracy, public well being and human rights by way of The Carter Center.
The former president and his spouse, Rosalynn, 95, opened the middle in 1982. His work there garnered a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
Khan reported from Albany, New York. Associated Press journalist Mark Thiessen contributed from Anchorage, Alaska.
