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The Rosalynn Carter Interview (Page 2 of 4)
An Interview with Rosalynn Carter
RC:
Another reason it appealed to me so
much, I’ve been a caregiver for a
good part of
my life. My father died when I was
thirteen and I am the oldest of four
children, so I
helped my mother. One of my main
responsibilities was to help her
with the smaller
children, but I also helped her with
my father. The following year, her
mother died and my
mother was the only child, so my
grandfather came to live with us; he
was 70 and lived to
be 95. I helped with him as well.
After I married and after Jimmy got
out of the Navy, I
moved away for a while. My
grandfather lived a long time after
I returned home, so I
continued to help her with him. She
worked at the post office and the
postmaster gave
her hours in the morning and in the
afternoon so that she could go home
for lunch
and take care of him. But I helped
with him when she needed to go to
work. Also, since
we’ve come home from the White
House, all of Jimmy’s family members
have died from
cancer ... his mother, his brother,
and his two sisters ... his whole
immediate family. I’ve watched that
process, too, so I have the personal
experience that makes me value the
caregivers.
GB:
And so many times, when you’re the
caregiver of record for the family,
it seems
like it is a continual process, with
you taking care of the next person
who needs help and
the next person who needs help, and
so on.
RC:
That’s right. What we’ve learned at
the Rosalynn Carter Institute is if
you don’t learnto care for yourself,
then you’re not going to be able to
be the best caregiver that you can
be for the one who is ill. That was
the book I wrote, Helping Yourself
Help Others.
GB:
That’s a great book. I have to admit
that as a speaker, I frequently use
the quote,
and I properly attribute it, “There
are only four kinds of people in the
world...those who have been caregivers,
those who are currently caregivers,
those who will be
caregivers ... and those who will
need caregivers.” Each time, it
truly resonates with the
audience. I’ve also seen this quote
in print many times. How did that
phrase come about,
and did you know that it would have
such an impact?
RC:
No, I didn’t. When I began working
with the university, which was a
public college
back then, the man who was the head
of the institute was also the head
of the psychology
department. He was a psychologist
and had cared for his mother and
father for a long time
by himself. I don’t even think they
lived in the same community with
him, but he really had
a tough time trying to do what he
was doing and also care for his
mother and father. He
was the one who actually gave me
that quote.
GB: ;
That is great. Anything that will
get people talking and sharing the
best practices
around the country with one another.
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