ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - At the dawning of a new year, Jimmy Carter’s grandson reflected on the life and legacy of the late 39th U.S. president.

Jason Carter, who’s also the chair of the Board of Trustees of The Carter Center, spent part of his New Year’s Eve sharing memories of the former president, who died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia, at the age of 100, and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, who died at 96 in November 2023.

“My grandfather is remarkable in a lot of ways, and one of them is that he has spent almost two years in hospice, and that time for him and for all of us has been a time of reflection,” Jason Carter said. “And so we’ve been looking at this and we weren’t sure when the day would come, but the fact that it’s here and that we’re talking about it on New Year’s Eve is a great way to reflect back on this remarkable legacy and to look to the future as well.”

Carter said New Year’s has long been a special time for his family.

“One of the great gifts that my grandparents gave to us is they hosted, essentially, a Carter family trip, for about 40 years,” he said. “And we always had it over New Year’s. So some of my best memories of them are celebrating on this day. And so this was sort of one of his last gifts to us, is that the entire family’s all going to get together this week again, and be there with each other and to, of course, celebrate this remarkable life that he had.”

Carter said his grandfather led by example and instilled in him the importance of supporting democracy worldwide and living a life of service.

“I watched him get so enriched by the time that he spent in different places around the world,” he said. “When I graduated from college, you know, I asked him what he thought I should do, and he said, ‘I think you should go to the Peace Corps in Africa.’ So I did that.

“And of course, I’m a lawyer now, and I spend a lot of time doing that, but it’s always a part of supporting human rights and democracy,” Carter continued. “And then obviously I got into politics in Georgia, in the old days now, you know, a decade ago, and it was important for me to share that with him and then to share the work of The Carter Center with him, as I’ve been the chair of the board for the last several years. That has been a real blessing for me.”

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Carter said the state of U.S. politics has changed significantly since his grandfather successfully ran for Georgia governor and U.S. president, but the lessons he taught about public service still apply today.

“When I ran for governor, it was all fundraisers and media buys. And when he ran for governor, he shook 600,000 hands, right? It was just a different era,” he said. “But the thing he taught me about politics that sometimes gets lost is, you can be a person like him who doesn’t change, who stays who they are, who stays true to their principles and their beliefs, despite all of the temptations of politics. And it’s just good to know that that person can exist in this world.”

Carter said Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s life together after politics was marked by simplicity and frugality.

“My grandparents moved back to the same house that they lived in before the White House,” he said. “And it’s, you know, a tiny country house in Plains, Georgia. They never changed a thing down there.

“As we’ve said repeatedly, they have a microwave oven, that you dial up and it ticks down, ‘tick, tick, tick.’ I mean, it’s unbelievable. It’s probably 40 years old,” Carter said. “Why change it if it still works, right? I mean, they had that Depression-era belief in not changing things.

“And, you know, he made a lot of furniture himself,” Carter continued. “He was just, he was a country guy. And my memories of him are like memories of other people’s grandfathers, you know, going fishing, going to the Braves games. It’s remarkable how regular they were, really.”

Jason Carter called his grandparents’ 77-year marriage “an incredible blessing.”

“There’s a lot of health luck involved in that,” he said. “But there’s also a lot of faith and love and excitement for each other.”

Carter also feels blessed by the years his own children got to spend with their great-grandfather.

“My two children are 18 and 16, so they knew their great-grandfather, you know, really well, and got to see him live out his values in a variety of ways,” he said.

Carter said he and his family have been encouraged by the “outpouring of love and support” they’ve received since the former president entered hospice care nearly two years ago, and in the days since he passed.

“I think he really just opened himself up to the world over these last 40 years after the presidency,” he said. “And I think we’ve all been heartened to see this outpouring of love and support come back over these last few days, and really over these last couple of years since he’s been in hospice, as we’ve all, sort of as a global community, been reflecting on his legacy.

“But for us in the family, of course, he was a rock for us,“ Carter said. “But we all know that because of the extent to which he shared himself with the rest of the world, a lot of people in this world are out there carrying on his legacy, so it doesn’t fall to any of us in particular, and that’s a heartening thing, because it would be very difficult to live up to if you tried.”

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