Jimmy Carter's grandson shares update on former president's health 15 months after he entered hospice care

Jimmy Carter's grandson has shared an update on the former president's health 15 months after he entered hospice care. 

Jason Carter, the grandson of the 39th president, said that there 'really is no change' in his grandfather's condition. The most recent update was shared with Southern Living Magazine. 

According to Jason, the 99-year-old is 'experiencing the world as best he can as he continues through this process.' 

Carter has been in hospice care since February 2023, while the average hospice stay is just 70 days. 

Rosalynn Carter tragically passed away last November after she and Carter had been married for 77 years.

'God had other plans,' Jason Carter said about his grandfather unexpectedly hanging on for so long after his beloved wife's death. 

'After 77 years of marriage… I just think none of us really understand what it's like for him right now,' Jason Carter said. 

Jason shared that Carter isn't awake every day, but he still talks to relatives and visitors when he is awake. 

The former president is receiving care at his home in his tiny hometown of Plains, Georgia. 

Upon a recent visit, Jason said he and his grandfather watched an Atlanta Braves game and talked about The Carter Center - the family's nonprofit organization. 

In May, the CEO of the nonprofit, Paige Alexander, shared that Carter was 'at home, enjoying peanut butter ice cream.'  

Carter Center CEO Paige Alexander said on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Politically Georgia podcast Wednesday that 'there really hasn't been a significant change' in the ex-president's health.

The Georgia peanut farmer and oldest living president has been in hospice care for more than a year after deciding to forego any further medical treatment.

'I mean, he will always be one bad cold away from the end,' Alexander told the podcast. 'He is in hospice care, and there are palliative measures if he's in pain, but nothing else.'

'He is just the same remarkable man. He has always been outliving and surprising us all,' Alexander added.

In another update shared last month, Jason said his grandfather's time was 'coming to an end.' 

Jason Carter said at a mental health forum: '(My grandfather) is doing OK.

'He has been in hospice, as you know, for almost a year and a half now, and he really is, I think, coming to the end that, as I’ve said before, there’s a part of this faith journey that is so important to him, and there’s a part of that faith journey that you only can live at the very end and I think he has been there in that space.'

Back in November, Carter attended the private funeral of his wife in a wheelchair - wearing a red lei around his neck to honor Rosalynn's love of Hawaii, which is where the Carters lived when Jimmy was in the Navy. 

Her children paid tribute to her and, in one of the service's sweetest moments, her great-grandchild Charlie Carter read one line from Ephesians 4:32: 'Be kind to one another.' 

And her great-grandchild Adeline Kane Chuldenko read 1 Corinthians 13:13: 'So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.' 

In the private funeral service, Maranatha Pastor Tony Lowden paid tribute to 'the life and legacy of the greatest first lady.'

Rosalynn Carter wasn't 'just the first lady of the White House,' he said. 'She served every nation around the world.'

After the service, Rosalynn was buried at the modest Plains, Georgia, home she shared with husband Jimmy Carter, in view of the front porch where the two often sat.