The Carter Center announced in late February that former President Jimmer Carter, 98, decided to begin hospice care at his Georgia home, forgoing further medical treatment. This decision is yet another lesson in a long line of lessons the longest living president in American history has bestowed upon us.
His success will not be measured only by his one-term presidency, but by all he has achieved since leaving the White House.
(Patch.com)
Former President Jimmy Carter on a Habit for Humanity construction site in Illinois in 2013.
As a warrior for free and fair elections, Carter monitored elections in dozens of countries. He negotiated peaceful resolutions to conflicts in Africa, Asia and the Americas, and launched programs to help eradicate diseases around the world. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize for a lifetime of civil rights activism.
Here at home, Carter became synonymous with Habitat for Humanity, making the nonprofit a household name. Owing in large measure to his sponsorship, the organization built more than 100,000 low-cost homes for at least half a million people in its initial two decades. He became so identified with Habitat for Humanity that more Americans probably remember him in denim with a hammer in his hand than in a suit.
Carter doesn’t just talk the talk; he has always walked the walk. In James 2:14-17 it is written: What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? … Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
The former president and Sunday school teacher clearly understood that bible passage – and he has lived by it.
(Emily Cardenas for Biscayne Times)
Emily Cardenas is the executive editor of Biscayne Times
Now by accepting with grace that his earthly days are numbered, Carter has elected hospice care instead of further medical intervention. This decision is a lesson in dying with dignity.
Hospice is defined as care for terminally ill patients to reduce pain and keep one comfortable, instead of trying to prolong life with frequently debilitating treatment that destroys what little quality of life one may have left. That The Carter Center chose to make this widely known sends a powerful message.
Georgia Democrat and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock said it best: “Across life’s seasons, President Jimmy Carter, a man of great faith, has walked with God. In this tender time of transitioning, God is surely walking with him.”
Emily Cardenas is the executive editor of Biscayne Times and The Miami Times newspapers. She previously worked as a producer at WTXF in Philadelphia and at WSCV, WFOR and WPLG in Miami.