“We know this is the first birthday without Rosalynn. It’s bittersweet, but we also know she’s always with you,” President Joe Biden says in a birthday message to his longtime friend. “She’s in your heart; she’ll never go away. She may be gone, but she’s always going to be with you. She’s always there, and I know you know that.”

The former first lady, also from Plains, died November 19 at age 96. Carter – who uses a wheelchair for mobility – is rarely seen but did appear at his late wife’s memorial service.

Biden, one of the first sitting senators to endorse Carter’s 1976 campaign, continues of the former Commander-in-Chief, “Even after you left office, the moral clarity you showed throughout your career showed through again in your commitment through the Carter Center and Habitat for Humanity…Put simply, Mr. President, I admire you so darn much.”

The milestone birthday bash was held at the Plains home where the Nobel Peace Prize laureate lives in hospice, the same one he built with Rosalynn in the 1960s.

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