Jimmy Carter’s eldest grandchild shares health update as former president nears 16 months in hospice

It’s been 479 days since Jimmy Carter entered hospice care at his home in Plains, Georgia.

Although the former president’s family initially believed he would only live a few days, Carter, at 99 years old, has defied the odds.

“God had other plans,” Jason Carter, 48, said.

Jason, the oldest of the Jimmy and Rosalynn’s 22 grandchildren, recently shared an update with Southern Living on the health of the 39th president.

According to the oldest grandchild, there’s “really been no change” in the last few months.

WASHINGTON – OCTOBER 04: Former US President Jimmy Carter listens during the kick-off of an all-week construction project to mark the World Habitat Day and the annual Habitat for Humanity Carter Work Project October 4, 2010 in the Ivy City neighborhood of Washington, DC. Carter was recently released from an Ohio hospital after being treated for a viral infection. Under the project a total of 86 homes will be built, rehabilitated or repaired in Washington, DC; Baltimore and Annapolis, Maryland; Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota; and Birmingham, Alabama. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

After nearly 16 months under hospice care, the last seven without his wife of 77 years, Carter is “experiencing the world as best he can as he continues through this process.”

“After 77 years of marriage… I just think none of us really understand what it’s like for him right now,” Jason said.. “We have to embrace that fact, that there’s things about the spirit that you just can’t understand.”

While family continue to visit the former president at his home in Plains, they find it difficult to predict what kind of day Carter will have.

More often than not, Carter spends his days sleeping.

However, a few weeks ago Jason visited his grandfather and the two watched an Atlanta Braves game and talked about the Carter Center and their family.

“I told him, I said: ‘Pawpaw, you know, when people ask me how you’re doing I say, ‘honestly I don’t know,’” Jason remembered. “And he kind of smiled and he said ‘I don’t know, myself.’”

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