But Jimmy Carter has been confounding expectations throughout a life that has lasted nearly a century.
As it turns out, there have been more final days than he or anyone around him anticipated.
Hospice care is meant to ease the end for both patient and family, prescribed for those with less than six months to live.
About half of those who enter hospice care last no more than 17 days.
Mr. Carter, the only president ever to live to age 99, seems destined to keep pushing the limits.
Persons:
Jimmy Carter, Carter
Locations:
Plains , Ga