Ailing former President Jimmy Carter didn’t miss his late wife Rosalynn’s memorial service on Tuesday — despite being confined to a wheelchair.
The 39th president, 99, was wheeled to his place in the front row at Glenn Memorial Church on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta — alongside guests of honor including President Biden and first lady Jill Biden.
Jimmy Carter’s custom-made suit, tailored for the occasion, was covered by a blanket bearing a picture of his late wife, to whom he had been married for 77 years.
“He’s coming to the end, and he’s very, very physically diminished,” his grandson Jason Carter told the New York Times ahead of the service.
“But I think he was proud and happy that he was there for her ’til the very end, and he wasn’t going to miss this for anything.”
Jason added that his grandfather “has been this moral rock for so many people,” but Rosalynn — who died Nov. 19 at the age of 96 — “really was the rock for him.”
“He’s glad he’s not going to miss it, but we’re all worried about him.”
The former president, who is 10 months into home hospice care and had not been seen in public since September, stayed Monday night at the Carter Center, CEO Paige Alexander said, steps from where the former first lady lay in repose.
“He never wants to be very far from her,” she said, adding: “He had a good night. He’s rested.”
She admitted the trip was “hard” for the 99-year-old, but said, “This is her last trip up and it’s probably his, too. … He’s determined.”
Tuesday’s memorial service was also attended by every living former first lady, including Melania Trump, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, and Hillary Clinton.
Other attendees included Vice President Kamala Harris, second gentleman Doug Emhoff and former President Bill Clinton.
“Secretary Clinton and Dr. Biden, we also welcome your lovely husbands,” Jason Carter quipped at one point in his remarks.
Former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump were invited, but did not attend.
None of the high-profile political attendees spoke at the ceremony, which featured classical music and beloved hymns, as well as readings from some of Rosalynn Carter’s favorite Bible passages.
The service also featured country music legends Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, friends of the Carters through their work with Habitat for Humanity.
In their remarks, the Carter children recounted Rosalynn’s outsize influence during her husband’s administration.
“Mom had so many questions that he finally said that she should attend Cabinet meetings,” recalled Chip.
“I will always love my mother,” he said. “I will cherish how she and Dad raised their children [and gave] us such a great example.”
Amy Lynn Carter teared up reading a letter that the former president sent to her mother while he was in the Navy.
“My darling, every time I have ever been away from you, I have been thrilled when I returned to discover just how wonderful you are,” she read.
“While I am away, I tried to convince myself that you really are not, could not, be as sweet and beautiful as I remember. But when I see you, I fall in love with you all over again. Does that seem strange to you? It doesn’t to me. Goodbye darling, until tomorrow.”
As Rosalynn’s casket, adorned with sunflowers, made its way to the service, the Carter Center posted a poem the former president wrote to his wife in 1995.
“I’d glow when her diminished voice would clear my muddled thoughts, like lighting flashing in a gloomy sky,” it reads.
“The nothing in my soul with her aloof was changed to foolish fulness when she came to be with me.”
Meanwhile, across the street from the church, anti-Israel protesters were seen and heard yelling “Free Palestine” and “Biden, we charge you with genocide.”
Rosalynn Carter’s funeral will take place Wednesday in Plains with an invitation-only service at Maranatha Baptist Church, where the Carters have been members since returning to Georgia after his presidency in 1981.
She will then be buried after a private graveside service on a plot the couple will share, visible from the front porch of the home they built before Jimmy Carter’s first political campaign in 1962.
With Post wires. Steven Nelson contributed to this report.
