The Book: Jimmy Carter's "A Remarkable Mother"

It didn’t seem to me that Jimmy Carter had much of a presence at the Democratic National Convention. Won’t he help the ticket in Georgia?

Never mind.

Year ago a librarian thrust one of his books at me urging me to read it. I had never read any of his books. To be nice I checked it out. I read it. I was impressed. Don’t ask me which of his many books it was: I have no recollection, only that I thought it was well written. Like this one, A Remarkable Mother which I think would have been better titled: An Astounding Mother!

It’s short but enlightening, a “fast read,” about Miss Lillian. Carter writes matter-of-factly with a great deal of humor about his mother who heavily influenced his life, as most strong-willed mothers impact the lives of their children. (Ask Scott McClellan, George Bush, Bill Clinton, and the list goes on.)

If you have any memory of "Miss Lillian" (being of a certain age), it’s a great book, especially for independent women and “wannabe” independent women. It gives one hope that life and activity continue well past the sitting stage.

In the summer of 1976, the year Jimmy Carter was elected, we took a detour off Interstate 75 in Georgia, on our way to visit my parents in Florida, to stop by Plains. In what memory tells me was a converted, painted, remodeled barn adorned by American flags which served, I suppose, as Carter’s Plains headquarters, sat Miss Lillian who talked as animatedly to us as if we were old friends. Our three-year-old daughter sat on her knee.

Miss Lillian was an uncommon woman who joined the Peace Corps at age 68, who made a difference not only to family members but to hundreds of people in India where she was stationed. She was a breath of fresh air in stale Washington. How delightful to be able to find someone of her personality there now!

Many highlights of President Carter’s own life are intertwined throughout the book. It is painful to read that upon Carter's graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy, his grandfather, “Jim Jack," didn’t recognize him and practically waved him away when Carter, in uniform, visited him in a drugstore in Richland, Georgia where his grandfather was passing the time of day with other “loafers.”

The deaths of Carter's sister, Ruth, and mother within one month of each other, from cancer, which also killed his father, were hard.

The cover is nicely designed, and the photographs add much to the book which remind me of another prolific author who also happens to be a politician who does his own work, too, I believe: Senator James Webb from Virginia.

This summer I saw Webb interviewed on (I think it was) Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” about his newest book, which may still be on the bestseller lists.

Sen. Webb remarked he had rather be writing than doing anything else. Then why in the world, I mused, is he in the U.S. Senate? I haven’t read any of his books: too manly for me, but where was I? Oh yes, Jimmy Carter’s mother.

A model for us baby-boomers who fear age, numbers, and reluctance to try all those things we want to do but instead, abandon dreams and cave in to society and expectations. Not Miss Lillian.