Dozens of supporters made a pilgrimage to the Carter Center in Atlanta on Sunday as prayers and remembrances of former President Jimmy Carter’s legacy were offered at his small Baptist church in Plains, Georgia, one day after he entered the hospice.
Among those who paid tribute was his niece, who highlighted the 39th president’s years of service in an emotional speech at Maranatha Baptist Church, where Carter taught Sunday school for decades.
“I just want to read one of Uncle Jimmy’s quotes,” Kim Fuller said during Sunday school morning service, adding: “Oh, this is going to be really hard.”
He referenced this quote from Carter: “I have one life and one chance to make it count for something. I am free to choose that something. … My faith demands that I do as much as I can, where I can, whenever I can, for as long as I can.”
“Maybe, if we think about it, maybe it’s time to pass the baton,” Fuller said before leading those gathered in prayer. “Who picks it up, I have no idea. I don’t know. Because this cane is going to be really big.”
Carter, at 98, the longest-serving US president, had a recent series of short hospital stays. The Carter Center said in a statement Saturday that she has now “chosen to spend the remaining time at home with her family and receive hospice care rather than further medical intervention.”
In Atlanta, people, some traveling many miles, made the trip to the Carter Center to reflect on the former president’s life on a spring Sunday under sunny skies.
“I brought my children here today to pay tribute to President Carter and to teach them a little bit about what a great humanitarian he was, especially in the later stages of his life,” said James Culbertson, who drove an hour to Atlanta from Calhoun. , Georgia.
the presidential library was closed in honor of President’s Day weekend, but people kept showing up to walk past the fountains and gardens.
David Brummett of Frederick County, Maryland, said he changed his plans for Sunday morning when he heard the news that Carter was in hospice care.
Brummett stopped near a large statue of Carter, where someone had placed a pot of purple mums at the base.
