ATLANTA — A week from today, the small town of Plains will lay former First Lady Rosalynn Carter to rest in a private funeral service at the Carters' home church, Maranatha Baptist, and then a private burial at the Carters’ family home.
As the town prepares, the reality of her death is slowly sinking in.
Anyone who has lost a loved one will admit knowing that someone’s passing is coming doesn’t make the moment any easier when it arrives.
In the days since Mrs. Carter passed, people across Georgia have been grappling with the loss of a woman who used every facet of her life to do good and held many titles of “first.”
She was the first first lady to have an office in the East Wing of the White House, the first to talk openly about mental health, one of the first to testify before Congress, and the first to sit in Cabinet meetings with her husband president, or at least the first to openly admit it.
She’s also the first in many minds of the people thinking of her now.
“She is probably one of the first remembrances I have of a first family,” Lisa Harwood said, a visitor from Savannah who came to The Carter Center in Atlanta to pay her respects.
Harwood and her sister Shari Blem walked the grounds of the center, admiring the tribute to the first lady in the Carter Presidential Library and signing the tribute guestbook.
“Even with her gone and him still here, you feel like you’re a little bit closer to them. You feel part of the family,” Blem said.
As Mrs. Carter said to the crowd on President Carter’s inauguration night, “We love and care for every single one of you.”
The feeling remains mutual.
The soft-spoken woman with razor sharp opinions was as complex as she was kind. From Plains to Atlanta, people are affected. You can see it on their faces and hear it from their hearts when they speak.
“I think it will take weeks, months, to process that we don’t have her. But, she has left us such a wonderful map to follow about how to be the kind of people we need to be,” close friend and Maranatha Baptist Church member Jan Williams said.
Unlike Jan, who spent many intimate moments with the Carters, Blem and Harwood have never met Mrs. Carter - but they shed tears over her passing all the same.
“All the good ones are going,” Blem said.
“She was the keeper of the people,” Harwood agreed as she wiped a tear.
As the small town of Plains now prepares for her funeral, friends like Williams are wading through their grief with memories, comforted by the time they spent together as friends.
“She and I just enjoyed our moments together. I sat beside her in church after I got through playing the piano and it was a blessing to me to have that opportunity,” Williams said.
Now, friends and strangers alike are extending their love to the man they know is hurting the most.
“The oncoming days for us will be caring about Mr. Jimmy. I am sure that he is totally lost without her,” Williams said.
The funeral and burial are both private to family and invited guests, but Plains is inviting the public to come line the streets for the motorcade between the church and the burial site at the Carters’ home nearby as a tangible way for people to show their love and support.
“I think her legacy will be how strong of a woman she was and the partnership she had with her husband,” Blem said.
Harwood agreed, saying, “Yes, strength. It’ll be strength, perseverance, and love.”