Jimmy Carter gets black eye, stitches after bumping head while getting dressed for church
Nearly a week after celebrating his 95th birthday, cementing his status at the oldest living former president, Jimmy Carter bumped his head in a fall as he got dressed for church on Sunday, which required him to get 14 stitches.
Just hours after his accident at his home in Plains, Georgia, Carter discussed the incident Sunday in Tennessee at a concert to rally volunteers ahead of his 36th home building project for Habitat for Humanity, Politico reported.
Video shared by the Associated Press on YouTube shows Carter appearing on stage with his wife, Rosalynn, 92, at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Country singer Trisha Yearwood, who introduced the Carters, called the couple the hardest working volunteers.
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“Well first of all I wanna explain my black eye. I got up this morning at my home in Plains (Georgia) getting ready to go to church because right after that we had a family reunion and then we were coming to Nashville and I fell down and hit my forehead on a sharp edge and had to go to the hospital. And they put 14 stitches in my forehead and my eye’s black as you noticed. But I had a No. 1 priority and that is to come to Nashville to build houses,” Carter said.
Despite his fall, Carter was recorded on Monday building corbels with Habitat for Humanity and he was praised for his selflessness online.
Jimmy Carter put his peanut farm in a blind trust so he could be a conflict-free, transparent president. https://t.co/lRIBGk7PWq
— david nussbaum (@theNuzzy) October 7, 2019
“This man is a national treasure. I've said before I voted for Reagan but that doesn't change that I recognize Jimmy Carter as a great man with a deep passion for helping others. We could all aspire to be a little more like him. Heal fast Mr. President!” wrote writer Mary Knapp on Twitter.
Carter said in an interview with KTLA5 that he and his wife would be having a “limited schedule” working on homes this week.
“We’ll be doing the best we can,” Carter said noting that he and Rosalynn would work on each of the porches of the 21 homes to be built in Nashville this week.
At the opening ceremony of the building project, Rosalynn Carter told the hundreds of other volunteers there to help build the 21 houses that she was inspired by their volunteerism.
“Seeing people like you who come just because you want to make life better for somebody else, I have great admiration for all of you,” she said in a Rocket City Now report.
Tara Morgan, one of the recipients of the houses being built told the outlet that: “Because of programs like Habitat for Humanity, I am able to see a vision for my future that is very different from what I’ve known and what my family has experienced.”
Recipients of the homes who are also helping with the construction will also be responsible for paying back an interest-free mortgage.
Carter, who turned 95 last Tuesday, is the first U.S. president to reach that milestone.
Earlier this year, Maranatha Baptist Church, the predominantly white church in Plains, Georgia, where Carter and his wife are longtime members, hired The Rev. Tony Lowden as the first black American to lead their 42-year-old congregation.
