Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, 99, has made a rare public appearance Tuesday to join his successors Joe Biden and Bill Clinton and all five living first ladies at the memorial service for his beloved wife Rosalynn.
Carter briefly left hospice care to attend the service at a church in Atlanta, arriving in a wheelchair with a blanket on his lap that was embroidered with a picture of his wife’s face.
The former president did not speak, but his children and grandchildren celebrated the “life well lived” of Rosalynn Carter, a humanitarian and mental health advocate who redefined the role of the modern First Lady.
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden had a “special moment with President Carter” before the service, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Air Force One.
Rosalynn Carter died on November 19, aged 96, at the couple’s home in Plains, Georgia, after a 77-year marriage that became a legend in U.S. politics.
– ‘In love’ –
Fighting back tears, their daughter Amy Lynn Carter read out a love letter her father wrote to her mother while he was in the US navy three quarters of a century ago.
“My mum spent most of her life in love with my dad,” she told the congregation at the Glenn Memorial Church.
Sitting in the front row of the church were Biden — who had backed Carter before the Democrat’s 1976 election win — and First Lady Jill Biden.
Alongside them were former president Bill Clinton, who was in office from 1993-2001, and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton; and former first ladies Melania Trump, Michelle Obama and Laura Bush.
