Rosalynn Carter, the former first lady, has entered hospice care at her Plains, Georgia, home, the Carter Center announced on Friday.
“She and President Carter are spending time with each other and their family. The Carter family continues to ask for privacy and remains grateful for the outpouring of love and support,” Jason Carter, the Carters’ grandson, said in the statement released by the Center.
The Center declared in May that the former first lady had been given a dementia diagnosis. On Friday, more information regarding the 96-year-old’s health was not immediately available. Following several brief hospital stays, 99-year-old former president Jimmy Carter started receiving home hospice care in February.
“What a blessing that they are together surrounded by family and love,” first lady Dr. Jill Biden told CNN in a statement in the wake of the center’s announcement Friday.
The Carters, who have been married for the longest time—77 years—celebrated their wedding anniversary in July. In an effort to promote global health and peace, Rosalynn Carter, a humanitarian and mental health advocate, co-founded the Carter Center with her husband after he left office.
Together, they visited popular destinations across the globe, such as North Korea, Cuba, and Sudan, where they monitored elections and worked to end neglected tropical diseases like Guinea worm disease. In 2002, Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
As the country continued to heal from the Watergate scandal, the former first lady played a vital and influential role in the White House during her husband’s tenure from 1977 to 1981. She assisted him in attempting to rebuild public confidence in the presidency.
“Rosalynn has always been that trusted adviser that is selfless. He knows for sure that she is looking out for others. And I don’t know if President Carter would have been president without Rosalynn,” Stuckey said.
Ahead of the former president’s 99th birthday, the couple recently made an unexpected trip to Plains, Georgia, for the Plains Peanut Festival.
In his 2015 memoir “A Full Life: Reflections at 90,” Jimmy Carter celebrated the couple’s “good health” and shared that they “look to the future with eagerness and confidence.” But, he said, they were also “prepared for inevitable adversity when it comes.”
In an August People Magazine interview, Josh Carter discussed the health of his grandparents and said, “It’s obvious we’re in the last chapter.”
At the time, he claimed that Rosalynn Carter had approved the press release announcing her diagnosis and was aware of it.
“She still knows who we are, for the most part – that we are family,” he told the magazine, adding: “My grandmother is still able to form new memories.”
