The Carter Center announced on Saturday that former President Jimmy Carter is receiving hospice care at his residence. The center said in a statement that he made the decision after a series of brief stays in the hospital.
According to the charity established by the 98-year-old former president, “decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention.”
It said he has the full support of his medical team and family, which “asks for privacy at this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers.”
Carter had a small cancerous mass removed from his liver in August 2015. Carter made the announcement the following year that he did not require any additional treatment because an experimental drug had eradicated all signs of cancer.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, who represents Carter’s home state of Georgia, referred to the former president as “a man of great faith” who “has walked with God” following Saturday’s announcement.
“In this tender time of transitioning, God is surely walking with him,” Warnock, who is also a minister, said on Twitter. “May he, Rosalynn & the entire Carter family be comforted with that peace and surrounded by our love & prayers.”
Jason Carter, the couple’s grandson who now chairs The Carter Center governing board, said Saturday in a tweet that he “saw both of my grandparents yesterday. They are at peace and—as always—their home is full of love.”
Carter celebrated his most recent birthday in October with family and friends in Plains, the tiny Georgia town where he and his wife, Rosalynn, were born in the years between World War I and the Great Depression.
After only serving one term in the White House, the 39th president and the former first lady established the Carter Center, which has been helping to improve public health, monitor elections, and promote democracy and conflict resolution in developing countries for 40 years.
When he defeated Gerald R. Ford in 1976, Democrat Jimmy Carter became the 39th president of the United States. In 1980, he lost to Republican Ronald Reagan after only one term.
After launching his campaign as a little-known, one-term Georgia governor, Carter prevailed in the 1976 election. The small Midwestern state of Iowa became the epicenter of presidential politics thanks to his surprising performance in the caucuses there. Carter went on to defeat Ford in the general election, largely because he won the South before his home state’s Republican majority shifted.
