Jimmy Carter will be buried in the same tiny, gentle town he put on the map

First, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter and his wife, Roselynn, sat down and enjoyed a lovely homemade meal at Jill Stuckey's home in Plains, Ga. Then, he got up and took the chair home with him. It was wonky. Maybe the leg was loose — Jill doesn't recall. But she does remember that when she got up the next morning, there it was on the porch. Carter had taken the chair home, fixed it, and brought it back. He was maybe 92 at the time.

It's one of many sweet memories echoing through tiny Plains, which has a population of just over 500 people, and is where Carter lived most of his life. There's the one about the former president taking off on his bicycle for the hardware store, the Secret Service catching up behind him. And there are legions of anecdotes about the Sunday school classes he taught at Maranatha Baptist Church, which has about 35 people in its congregation. 

In 2015, I watched hundreds line up before dawn after driving through the night just to get a chance at a space in the pews for Carter's class. His sermon was a little bit of scripture and a lot about taking the time to respect and understand those around you. That's what both Carters did right after church. Everyone who attended was promised a picture. The people lined up again, had a brief, kind exchange with the Carters then, click, photo taken and off they went. It was an experience as gentle as Plains.

You'll hear a lot about Plains as the former president's funeral plans emerge. Some presidents are buried at their libraries, and Carter's is in Atlanta. But the Carters decided Atlanta had enough tourist attractions, and thought Plains could use the traffic. Already, this wee place that's so flat the locals say water doesn't know which way to run, relies on the Carter legacy. The school both Carters attended is now a museum. The peanut warehouse both the former president and his father worked at is now a general store. (And a side note from me: You haven't been to Plains if you haven't tried the store's peanut ice cream. Delish). The Carter family and support are everywhere. 

So, the couple will be buried, together one day, under a willow tree at their home off the main street through Plains. They're the only presidential couple in the modern era to move back into the home they lived in before the presidency. The house was built in the early 1960s, and to hear their friend Jill Stuckey talk of it, not much has changed. It's so small that when former Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat arrived for a visit in 1997, he kept asking where the "main house" was. 

The National Park service has ownership of it now. When it had to be appraised, it turned out the house was worth less than the Secret Service SUVs parked outside. 

The two humans who lived inside that house, though? The ones married for 77 years? Priceless.