Jeff Carter, youngest son of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, has lived with Parkinson’s for years

Jeff Carter, the youngest lad of erstwhile President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn, has been quietly surviving with Parkinson’s illness for the past respective years, Jeff’s lad revealed.

Josh Carter, 40, spoke astir his father’s diagnosis connected Monday astatine an lawsuit commemorating the 34th yearly United Nations’ International Day of Older Persons.

While 72-year-old Jeff Carter has known astir his information for a while, helium chose to support it backstage until now, the younger Carter told People Editor-in-Chief Wendy Naugle during a sheet treatment that focused connected the “importance of strengthening attraction and enactment systems for older persons worldwide.”

“My dada is presently surviving by himself, he’s capable to instrumentality attraction of himself, he’s independent, but helium built his location knowing that 1 time he’s going to request much help,” helium said, noting that his begetter moved into a wheelchair-accessible location astir a decennary agone truthful helium could hole for his future.

Today helium “can virtually power his encephalon with his iPhone, which is wild,” Josh Carter said. “He tin basal up, helium tin locomotion around, helium tin clasp a portion without spilling it, helium tin devour [and] helium tin communicate.”

After the sheet discussion, held conscionable days aft Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday, Josh Carter gave Naugle much penetration into his father’s experience, saying helium hasn’t been “very unfastened astir it due to the fact that helium doesn’t privation to beryllium the look of anything.”

“Parkinson’s sucks,” helium said. “It’s a hard disease. It’s a hard diagnosis.”