(Atlanta) Jimmy Carter attended a final tribute in Atlanta on Tuesday to his wife and former first lady of the United States Rosalynn Carter, who died a week ago at the age of 96, alongside President Joe Biden.
The 99-year-old former president, treated in palliative care since February, arrived at the church pushed in a wheelchair, with an emaciated face, for one of his very rare recent public appearances.
He was placed in the front row alongside President Biden, former President Bill Clinton and the five living first ladies of the United States – Jill Biden, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama and Melania Trump – as well as the 11 little -children and 14 great-grandchildren of the Carter couple.
PHOTO EVELYN HOCKSTEIN, REUTERS
Joe Biden and Jill Biden
“My mother was the glue that held our family together,” James Carter, one of Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter’s sons, said during the ceremony.
Their daughter, Amy Lynn Carter, read a letter from her father dedicated to her mother Rosalynn and written 75 years ago, when the former president – now unable to speak – was serving in the Navy: “While I was away, I try to convince myself that you are not, that you cannot be as sweet and beautiful as I remember. But when I see you, I fall in love with you again. »
Inseparable
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter married in 1946 and formed an inseparable couple in both public and private life.
Rosalynn Carter distinguished herself throughout her life for her commitment to democracy, human rights and health issues.
She became involved in her husband’s campaigns and political journey, even participating in “cabinet meetings and key briefings” when he was president between 1977 and 1981, according to the official White House website.
“Rosalynn has been my equal partner in everything I have accomplished,” Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter said after his wife’s death.
After his failure to win re-election in 1980 against Republican Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter was discredited on the national scene, but the couple bounced back and established a global network of charitable activities, while leading a lifestyle modest.
Rosalynn Carter died on November 19, two days after entering palliative care, “at peace, with her family by her side”, in the couple’s home in Plains, in the state of Georgia, said the foundation managing the the image and political legacy of Jimmy Carter, in a press release.
On Monday, the population was able to pay their respects in front of his coffin, installed at the Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta.
The procession traveled the streets of the Georgia state capital on Tuesday, starting from the Carter Presidential Center to the church where the service took place, to allow the public to “greet the procession as it passed,” the Carter Center foundation announced.
The funeral will take place on Wednesday in a more intimate setting in the small village of Plains, where the couple lived for decades, under the eyes of the oldest ex-president in history.