Carter’s example shines despite cancer
Ex-president keeps crowded schedule as ‘life goes on’
PLAINS, Ga. — In theory, it’s not the restful weekend one would expect of a 90-year-old who just started cancer treatment.
But Jimmy Carter has never lived his life in theory.
On Thursday, just hours after the news conference where he discussed in detail his diagnosis and plans for the future, the former president and Georgia governor returned to the beloved hometown from which he’s always run his most important campaigns.
His schedule was crowded with events like Saturday night’s 88th birthday celebration for his wife Rosalynn and his suddenly not-very-usual Sunday school teaching slot at Maranatha Baptist Church for as many as 400 expected visitors and at least 10 TV news crews.
Plus, photos outside the church afterward with anyone who wanted them.
“Life goes on,” said Jan Williams, a friend and a member of Carter’s church.
And now, so does Jimmy Carter’s last great campaign. By publicly combating with grace and grit the cancer that’s been found in his liver and brain, Carter is attempting to prolong his remarkable life while also leading others by example. And he’ll do it, he suggested in understated yet stunning fashion, by agreeing to temper the relentless pace of work and travel that has been the constant of his 60-plus years as a statesman and humanitar- ian.
“I’m going to cut back fairly dramatically on my obligations,” Carter said at the news conference at The Carter Center, where he also announced that his grandson, Jason, 40, would take over from him as chairman of the board of trustees. “I’m ready to go on to a new adventure.”
In a session filled with difficult medical disclosures, this revelation may have been almost as tough for Carter to publicly embrace. Since leaving the White House 35 years ago, he has logged millions of miles and traveled to dozens of countries on various peacekeeping, democracy-pushing and disease-fighting missions. Now, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said he intended to follow his doctors’ orders and reduce his duties at the Carter Center and Emory University.
He’s talked of scaling down his work for more than a decade — and his wife of 69 years has intermittently begged him to do so — but he said it took getting cancer to finally force his hand. Even so, the pain of that decision clearly lingered, as Carter spoke hopefully about still embarking on a November trip to Nepal to build Habitat for Humanity houses for the needy, even though it could interfere with the end of his treatment regimen.
In between treatments in Atlanta over the next three months, Carter will spend more time in this southwest Georgia town of about 700 where he’s lived most of his life. Plains has rallied around its native son, showering him with signs of support, prayers — and promises of tough love when necessary. When Carter mentioned that going to Nepal would delay his final radiation treatment by five weeks, a chorus of “no” rang out in Plains’ Buffalo Cafe, where some of his close friends had gathered to watch Thursday’s news conference on TV.
“He’s always done it the way he’s wanted to, that’s why he’s done so much,” said Bobby Salter, the owner of Plain Peanuts on Main Street “He’s going to have to change somewhat.”
Yet here, he still appears to be the same hard-charging Jimmy Carter who handed out awards for well over an hour under a blazing sun at last fall’s annual Peanut Festival and who never misses a board meeting of the Plains Better Hometown Program.
There was no thought given to postponing Rosalynn’s public birthday party, organizers say. And, despite being in the midst of an undoubtedly grueling cancer treatment regimen, Carter has given no indication he intends to skip any of his longscheduled Sunday school teaching slots — what many church members refer to as “Jimmy Sundays.”