2023-11-29 11:53:57
by Viviana Mazza
The former president, 99 years old, wanted to participate in his wife’s funeral ceremony: they had gotten engaged in 1945. Joe Biden and the five living first ladies were also in the church
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
NEW YORK — In the front row, pale and fragile in a wheelchair, with a blanket over his legs, Jimmy Carter yesterday in Atlanta wanted to pay his last respects to his wife Rosalynn Carter, who died on November 19 at the age of 96. In July they celebrated 77 years of marriage.
It was the first time that the 99-year-old former president had appeared in public since September: he and his wife had participated in the peanut fair parade in Plains, a town 225 kilometers from Atlanta, where they lived for decades in a modest house (they had remained in the car with the windows open). His daughter Amy held his hand throughout the ceremony. “He’s coming to the end of her life, but he’s happy and proud that he was there for her until the end, and he wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” said one of her nephews, Jason Carter.
Present at the tribute, held at the Glenn Memorial Unified Methodist Church, were two of Carter’s successors in the White House, the current president, Joe Biden, and Bill Clinton, along with Vice President Kamala Harris, and the five living first ladies, heirs of a role that Rosalynn Carter has profoundly transformed: Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, Melania Trump and Jill Biden. Melania said she was grateful for the invitation, which – the Carter family explained – was also intended to be a call for unity in a moment of profound political divisions. But many have noticed how she and Michelle, next to each other, never looked at each other or spoke to each other. “My mother campaigned and voted against some of their husbands,” said one of the four children, Chip Carter, who hugged Melania. “But she believed that there are some things that are more important than politics.” Several of the couple’s eleven grandchildren and fourteen great-grandchildren were at the church.
Rosalynn Carter was born in rural Georgia, the eldest of four children in a modest family. Her future husband’s mother was the nurse who attended her birth. Jimmy’s younger sister was a close childhood friend of hers. They began their relationship in 1945, when he was stationed at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Daughter Amy read in church a letter Jimmy Carter wrote to his wife when he was a submarine commander in the US Navy, 75 years ago. “Every time I’ve been away from you, I get excited when I come back and discover how wonderful you are. I try to convince myself that you really can’t be as sweet and beautiful as I remembered you. But when I see you, I fall in love again. Does it seem strange to you? Not to me. Hi sweetie. See you tomorrow. Jimmy.”
When her husband launched his political career in the 1960s, first as a Georgia state senator, then governor, and later president of the United States, Rosalynn dedicated herself to reducing the stigma associated with mental illness, a theme she pursued throughout the years subsequent ones. Judy Woodruff, a journalist who followed the electoral campaign that brought Carter to the presidency, recalled how Rosalynn regularly participated in government meetings, playing a key role: it was she who first suggested that the peace negotiations between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and the ‘Israeli Menachem Begin were held at Camp David.
After being evicted from the White House by Ronald Reagan, having served a single term, the couple founded the Carter Center in 1982. The post-presidency years were marked by research into conflict resolution and the eradication of diseases such as dracunculiasis , the Guinea worm, which led Jimmy Carter to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
Rosalynn’s death shook Jimmy Carter, his son Chip said. «He stayed with the body for 30 minutes, but he is coming to terms with the loss of her». “Rosalynn has been my equal partner in everything I have accomplished,” the widower said in a statement released the day of Rosalynn’s death. «She gave me wise advice and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew that someone loved and supported me.” The trip to Atlanta was “difficult” for the former president, said Paige Alexander who directs the Carter Center, but “this is the last trip for her and probably for him too.”
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November 29, 2023 (modified November 29, 2023 | 1.33pm)
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