“Still using his brain”
Grandson talks about terminally ill Jimmy Carter
08/09/2023 01:11 am
After several hospital stays, the former US President is in outpatient hospice care. The democrat spends the time he has left with his family. Now grandson Hugo Wentzel talks about the health of the 98-year-old.
Hugo Wentzel, the 24-year-old grandson of former US President Jimmy Carter, has given a health update about his world-famous grandfather. Wentzel revealed to “Entertainment Weekly” that his grandfather, who has been in outpatient hospice care for some time, is getting worse and worse. “He’s very ill,” reveals Wentzel. But he also talks about how active the 98-year-old is despite everything: “He’s still using his brain. He listens to audio books. He’s a genius, he’s so smart. I love him. He always wants something do with his mind, so he tries to keep himself busy.”
Above all, Wentzel’s mother, Carter’s 55-year-old daughter Amy Carter, devotedly takes care of the 39th President of the United States of America: “My mother spends a lot of her time with him. She now takes care of him almost half of her time. […] It’s very family oriented. I haven’t been able to see him that often lately. But he knows that I love him and that we support him during this time.”
He also talks about his grandmother Rosalynn Carter in the interview. The former first lady was only diagnosed with dementia at the age of 95 in May of this year. Wentzel says: “Yes, she suffers from dementia and when I see her, she sometimes forgets what is going on around her. But when she remembers, it’s great. I love her.”
It is important to him to remind people what a great woman his grandmother is: “She has put so much work into it all her life, for example for mental health. I want everyone to know how incredible and wonderful she is – when person and as a grandmother.”
Jimmy Carter was President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. He has been married to his Rosalynn since 1946. The Carter Center announced in February 2023 that the 98-year-old had entered hospice care of his own volition after several brief hospitalizations. He wants to spend the rest of the time “at home with his family”.