Former US President Jimmy Carter who is in hospice care asked President Joe Biden to deliver his eulogy, the current commander-in-chief has said.
Carter’s request was revealed by Biden during a fundraiser in Santa Fe, California, on Monday.
‘He asked me to do his eulogy – excuse me, I shouldn’t say that,’ said Biden.
‘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.’
The Carter Center last month announced that Carter, 98, would be receiving ‘hospice care instead of additional medical intervention’ following ‘a series of short hospital stays’.
Biden at the time tweeted: ‘To our friends Jimmy and Rosalynn and to their family – Jill and I are with you in prayer and send you our love.
‘We admire you for the strength and humility you have shown in difficult times. May you continue your journey with grace and dignity, and God grant you peace.’
Carter in 2015 disclosed that he had four spots of cancer that had spread to his brain. He had melanoma that spread to his brain and liver. Carter underwent treatment and by December of that year, had the cancer eradicated.
In 2019, Carter had several health scares – surgery to remove pressure to his brain, a fall that fractured his pelvis and another fall that caused him to have a black eye and stitches.
It was not clear what Biden was specifically referring to with the ‘breakthrough’ in Carter’s health.
Biden last visited Carter in the Plains in 2021.
While serving his first term as a US senator, Biden endorsed Carter for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976.
Decades later, Carter and his wife Rosalynn made a video endorsement of Biden aired in the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Carter acknowledged Biden as his ‘first and most effective supporter in the Senate’ and said that he and Rosalynn have ‘known and admired Joe and (First Lady) Jill for many years’.
Carter, the 39th US president, is the oldest living US president in history after George HW Bush, who died aged 94 in 2018.
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