Jimmy, Rosalynn Carter mark 70 years together

ATLANTA — When doctors told Jimmy Carter they had found four small tumors on his brain, the former president and his wife, Rosalynn, feared his life could end within weeks.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do,” the former first lady said Wednesday. “I depend on him when I have questions, when I’m writing speeches, anything, I consult with him.”

Nearly a year later, the former first couple is preparing to celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary July 7. Jimmy Carter has said his doctors found no sign of cancer in recent scans and he has stopped receiving regular doses of a drug that helps his immune system fight the disease.

The couple spoke before heading to Maryland for an annual fundraising retreat for The Carter Center, the human rights organization they founded in 1982.

“We expected my life to be over,” Jimmy Carter, 91, said. “We had to accommodate that crisis, and then I got treatment and it started working.”

“A miracle,” Rosalynn Carter, 88, interjected.

“We’ve been through that ordeal, and I’d say it’s brought us even closer together,” the former president said. “And we’ve begun to think about the consequences of that, but now have a big sigh of relief.”

The Carters’ work at the human rights organization has kept them in the public eye since the mid-1980s. They traveled the world together to monitor elections and speak on health issues and human rights.