People all over the nation and world, including here locally in Northern Michigan, are remembering former president Jimmy Carter, who passed away at the age of 100 over the weekend.
Carter passed away Sunday afternoon at his home in Plains, Georgia almost 2 years after entering hospice care.
Carter was not only known as the 39th president, but for his other work as an advocate of human rights.
One man in Wexford County said he’s honored he had the opportunity to spend a day with the former president and his wife back in the 1990’s.
Lyn Cryderman said he was working with Carter’s pastor to write a book about the former president.
He said even decades later, the peanut farmer’s humbleness and desire to help others stays with him.
“He was one of a kind. We lost a great one. And I’m just grateful that I got a chance to meet him,” said Cryderman.
Cryderman said he feels blessed to have had the opportunity to meet the 39th president of the United States.
He said Carter invited him to his home after working on a book Carter’s pastor had written about Carter that he was helping to get published.
“He was just so down to earth and authentic. It wasn’t like I was talking to the person who held the highest office in the world,” said Cryderman.
He said during his visit, he got see Carter’s church, attend Carter’s Sunday school class, and sang in the church choir.
“I unashamedly invited myself to do that. I mean, how many times do you get a chance to have an audience of a President of the United States, ” said Cryderman.
Then the former publisher was invited to dinner at Carter’s home.
“We went the three blocks to his house, the house that he and Roslyn built themselves. You’d think, you know, a former president would be in some big mansion. It was a very unassuming, modest house,” said Cryderman.
He said the dinner was nothing fancy, in fact the former First Lady made the meal herself, without the help of servants.
“We sat down to a Sunday dinner, like all the Sunday dinners I experienced as a kid, and even with my own family. And I sat to his left, and he put his hands up for us to hold hands around the table, he said a very simple grace,” said Cryderman.
He said his favorite memory was when he left, he looked back to see the Carters at their front door waving goodbye.
“Remember, this is the president of the United States. He was just a real ordinary guy that loved people and was accessible and really seemed more interested in us than we were in him,” said Cryderman.
Cryderman said it’s an experience he will never forget.
“I’m a little guy from a small town in Michigan. Average student. Not very remarkable. And yet I got to spend pretty much the whole day with the president and his wife. Not too many people get to do that,” said Cryderman.
He said he was saddened by the news but it’s also bittersweet
“We all have an expiration date. He vastly outlived his. And I believe with all my heart, he is enjoying a perfect reward for a life well-lived. And maybe more important, the reunion with the love of his life, Roslyn,” said Cryderman.