Jimmy Carter health update issued by grandson

Former President Jimmy Carter has seen no change in his condition since he entered hospice care nearly 18 months ago, according to his grandson.

Jason Carter, the former president’s eldest grandson, said in an interview with Southern Living magazine that the 99-year-old is “experiencing the world as best he can” following the death of his wife Rosalynn last November.

Carter, the 39th president of the U.S. who served between 1977 and 1981, entered hospice care in February 2023 at his home in Plains, Georgia, following a series of hospital stays. Jimmy Carter has also experienced a number of health issues down the years, including recovering from cancer of the lung and brain.

The latest health update from Jason Carter arrived after he said the former president is “coming to the end” during a talk in Atlanta in May.

Speaking to Southern Living, Jason Carter said the family thought that the former president may only live for a short time once he entered hospice care, but it now appears “God had other plans.”

Discussing how Carter is coping as a widower, Jason Carter said: “After 77 years of marriage[…]I just think none of us really understand what it’s like for him right now. We have to embrace that fact, that there’s things about the spirit that you just can’t understand.”

The former president’s grandson also described how his grandfather discussed his health and how he is feeling during a recent visit to Plains.

“I told him, I said: ‘Pawpaw, you know, when people ask me how you’re doing, I say, ‘honestly I don’t know,'” Jason Carter said. “And he kind of smiled and he said, ‘I don’t know, myself.’

“It was pretty sweet,” he added.

The Democrat, who was born on October 1, 1924, is America’s oldest living former president.

Speaking at a mental health forum at the Carter Center in Atlanta in May, Jason Carter said: “My grandfather is doing OK. He has been in hospice almost a year and a half now.

“And he really is, I think, coming to the end. As I’ve said before, there’s a part of this faith journey that is so important to him. And there’s a part of that faith journey that you only can live at the very end, and I think he has been there in that space.”

The Carter Center, a nonprofit set up by the former president and the former first lady in 1982, confirmed that the Democrat would be entering hospice care at his home instead of additional medical intervention last February.

“He has the full support of his family and his medical team,” the center said in a statement. “The Carter family asks for privacy during this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers.”

Carter, who lost the 1980 election to Ronald Reagen, went on to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”