Americans look back on the vulnerability and determination of Jimmy Carter

His face was pale and gaunt, his legs were wrapped in a blanket, and his eyes never seemed to make contact with the family members sitting around him. But on Tuesday, Jimmy Carter was there, in the front row of an Atlanta church, just feet from the casket with Rosalynn Carter, his wife of 77 years.

Mr. Carter, 99, was about 160 miles from his home in Plains, Georgia, where he had been in hospice care since February. He was brought into the church in a wheelchair as the crowd of mourners at the memorial looked on, many catching a glimpse of him for the first time in nine months.

That he would make such a journey in his condition was shocking to some – and worrying to his family.

And yet it was also very true to form: a display of the tenacity, bordering on stubbornness, that has been a defining characteristic of Mr. Carter, the longest-lived president in American history.

“Come hell or high water, Jimmy Carter would use his inner resources to be there,” said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, adding that the former president “has the most intense willpower of anyone I have ever known.” known.”

A certain determination has always been at the core of Mr. Carter’s identity, especially when it came to Mrs. Carter, who rejected him when he first proposed. But it has also developed into a quiet intensity that has propelled him forward – and sometimes dismayed his family and aides – as he has repeatedly braved illness and infirmity.

“He is a man of tremendous endurance, strength and willpower,” author Kai Bird, a biographer of Carter, said on CNN as the memorial service concluded Tuesday.

In 2019, after a fall left Mr. Carter with a black eye and stitches, he quickly showed up to help build homes in Nashville for Habitat for Humanity. “My No. 1 priority was to come to Nashville and build houses,” Mr. Carter said at a gathering of volunteers, according to People magazine.

“One of the things Jesus taught was: If you have talents, try to use them for the benefit of others,” Mr. Carter, then 95 years old, said. told the magazine, which showed he had 14 stitches on his head. “That’s what Rosa and I both tried to do.”

Not long after, he broke his pelvis. Ignoring the pleas of his family and staff, he showed up to teach Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church, carefully sitting down on a stool in front of the congregation to deliver a simple sermon on being a kind and loving neighbor .

Then he and Mrs. Carter remained in their seats as dozens of visitors from around the world lined up to have their pictures taken with them.

Mr. Carter has rarely been seen in public since entering hospice care, and in May the Carter Center announced that Mrs. Carter, a longtime advocate for greater access to mental health care, was suffering from dementia. She died on November 19, at the age of 96.

Mr. Carter’s family expressed concern that attending Tuesday’s service could be stressful for the former president. But they also recognized the importance of his presence in the church, where he joined some of his successors and every living presidential wife.

“He has been this moral rock for so many people, but she really was that rock for him,” said his grandson Jason Carter. “He’s happy he won’t miss it, but we’re all worried about him.”

Mr. and Mrs. Carter’s daughter, Amy Carter, said during the service that her father was unable to speak to those in attendance. So she read a love letter he wrote to his wife while serving in the Navy more than 70 years ago.

“My love, every time I was away from you, I was happy to come back to discover how wonderful you are,” Mr. Carter wrote in the letter. “While I’m away, I’m trying to convince myself that you’re really not as sweet and beautiful as I remember. But when I see you, I fall in love with you all over again.

“Does that seem strange to you?” he continued. “It’s not necessary for me. Goodbye darling. See you tomorrow, Jimmy.’

Pieter Bakker reporting contributed.