Gerald Ford Tells Jimmy Carter "Welcome Home Old Friend" in Eulogy

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Jimmy Carter’s Funeral: Donald Trump, Barack Obama & More Leaders Attend

Before President Jimmy Carter is laid to rest, his colleagues and loved ones are honoring his life.

And that includes the late President Gerald Ford, who had made an agreement with President Carter during their lifetimes to write and read the other’s eulogy at their funeral. But, given that Ford—who died in 2006—was 11 years older than Carter, he previously tapped his son Steven Ford to read the eulogy on his behalf—a promise Steven fulfilled during the Jan. 9 funeral at the National Cathedral.

“By fate of a brief season, Jimmy Carter and I were rivals,” the youngest Ford son read. “But for many of the wonderful years that followed, friendship bonded us as no two presidents since John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.”

He continued, reading his father’s words, “According to a map, it’s a long way between Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Plains, Georgia. But distances have a way of vanishing when measured in values, rather than miles. And it was because of our shared values, that Jimmy and I respected each other as adversaries, even before we cherished one another as dear friends.”

And while the late president admitted in his remembrance that Carter could “get under [his] skin,” Ford added of the showdown that saw the democratic Carter narrowly defeat him as the republican incumbent, “Little could I know that the outcome of that 1976 election would bring about one of my deepest and most enduring friendships.”

Ford also reminisced on his and Carter’s trip to Egypt for President Anwar El-Sadat’s funeral in 1981, admitting he feared the long flight aboard Air Force One to be an awkward one, joking, “There's an old line to the effect that two presidents in a room is one too many.”

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Yet, the opposite happened. “The return trip was not nearly long enough,” Ford wrote. “For it was somewhere over the Atlantic that Jimmy and I forged a friendship that transcends politics. Forgetting that either one of us ever said any harsh words about the other one in the heat of battle, we got on to much more enjoyable subjects discussing our families, our faith, and sharing our experiences in discovering that there is indeed life after the White House.”

Ford’s eulogy also referenced the many books Carter wrote throughout his lifetime, and the way he and wife Rosalynn Carter dedicated their lives to service—both in and out of the White House.

After all, he wrote, “Honesty and truth telling were synonymous with the name Jimmy Carter.”

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And after writing of his late friend that “the American people and the people of the world will be forever blessed by his decades of good works,” the now-deceased Ford preemptively wrote a welcome to Carter.

“As for myself, Jimmy, I'm looking forward to our reunion,” Ford wrote. “We have much to catch up on.”

“Thank you, Mr. President,” he concluded. “Welcome home old friend.”

For more from President Carter’s funeral, keep reading.

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Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Kamala Harris, Doug Emhoff, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, Laura Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump & Melania Trump

The leaders formed a united front to pay their respects to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who died in late December at the age of 100.