Former President Jimmy Carter, who is still in hospice care, has asked President Joe Biden to deliver his eulogy after his death, according to the president’s comments to supporters on March 13.
“He asked me to do his eulogy. Excuse me, I shouldn’t say that,” Biden said at a Democrat National Convention in Rancho Santa Fe, California.
“I spent time with Jimmy Carter and it’s finally caught up with him, but they found a way to keep him going for a lot longer than they anticipated because they found a breakthrough.”
Biden was likely alluding to Carter’s lengthy cancer fight. The former president reported in 2015 that four cancerous spots had migrated to his brain, but after treatment, he was reportedly found cancer-free in December of that year.
In 2019, he had several health concerns that led to surgery to relieve pressure in his head. His health issues caused him to let go of some of his regular activities, including participation in his church in Plains, Georgia.
Carter, who turned 98 last year, became the oldest surviving U.S. president after George H.W. Bush died in late 2018 at the age of 94.
Due to the coronavirus epidemic, the nation’s 39th president has kept a low public profile in recent years, but he has continued to make a concerted effort to speak out against threats to democracy throughout the world, which has long been a cause personal to Carter.
The Carter Center, a not-for-profit charity organization, released a statement about the former president’s condition saying, “After a series of short hospital stays, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter today decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention.
“He has the full support of his family and his medical team. The Carter family asks for privacy during this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers,” the organization said in a statement.
In 1976, Carter beat former President Gerald Ford to become the 39th President of the United States.
He won the 1976 presidential election despite being a little-known one-term Georgia governor. He only served one term before being defeated by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.
