'Experiencing the world as best he can': Jimmy Carter's grandson shares update on his grandfather's health

Jimmy Carter’s grandson, Jason Carter, gave an update on the former president’s health after over a year in hospice care.

Jason Carter, Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter’s oldest grandchild, shared with Southern Living that his grandfather is “experiencing the world as best he can as he continues through this process” without his beloved wife.

“After 77 years of marriage… I just think none of us really understand what it’s like for him right now,” Jason Carter told Southern Living. “We have to embrace that fact, that there’s things about the spirit that you just can’t understand.”

He added that Jimmy Carter isn’t awake every day, though he’ll occasionally crack jokes as he spends time with loved ones in his longtime home of Plains, Georgia.

Rosalynn Carter died last year at age 96. Jimmy Carter, now 99, entered hospice in February 2023. The Carter Center, the global charity Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter founded after his tenure in office, shared in a statement at the time that the former president was choosing “to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention.”

While hospice is often associated with the final days of a person’s life, it’s not always a short-term option. Jason Carter told Southern Living that his family originally expected Jimmy Carter to need hospice care for just a few days, but “God had other plans.”

Jason Carter last month said that Jimmy Carter was “doing okay” but “coming to the end.”

“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,” Jason Carter said at the 28th Rosalynn Carter Georgia Mental Health Forum at the Carter Center.

He also told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last month that his grandfather spent hours saying goodbye to Rosalynn Carter at the end of her life.

“He had this opportunity to say goodbye, and after that, he was just totally at peace with it. And it was an incredible thing after 77 years of marriage to watch that type of closure,” he told the “Monica Pearson Show.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jimmy Carter's grandson shares update on his grandfather's health