ATLANTA — Former President Jimmy Carter is personally attending the tribute services in Atlanta for Rosalynn Carter on Tuesday, having undertaken the journey to Atlanta in his only publicly known travel since entering hospice care back in February.
The former president, as Carter Center CEO Paige Alexander explained to 11Alive's Savannah Levins, "doesn't like to be far from her."
RELATED: WATCH LIVE | Former presidents, first ladies attend Rosalynn Carter memorial service in Atlanta
Underscoring Carter's devotion to his wife of 77 years, the Carter Center posted a 1995 poem he wrote for her, entitled: "Rosalynn."
Read it in full below:
Jimmy Carter's poem for Rosalynn Carter, 1995
She'd smile, and birds would feel that they no longer
had to sing, or it may be I failed
to hear their song.
Within a crowd, I'd hope her glance might be
for me, but I knew that she was shy, and wished
to be alone.
I'd pay to sit behind her, blind to
what was on the screen, and watch the image flicker
upon her hair.
I'd glow when her diminished voice would clear
my muddled thoughts, like lightning flashing in
a gloomy sky.
The nothing in my soul with her aloof
was changed to foolish fullness when she came
to be with me.
With shyness gone and hair caressed with gray
her smile still makes the birds forget to sing
and me to hear their song.
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