Read Jimmy Carter’s Poem About His ‘Storybook Romance’ With Late Wife Rosalynn Carter

Former President Jimmy Carter and his late First Lady, Rosalynn Carter, enjoyed the longest marriage in the history of US presidents since their wedding in 1946. Shortly after Rosalynn’s death on Sunday, November 19, The Carter Center re-circulated a poem written by Jimmy in 1995.

The beautiful piece of writing was included in Jimmy’s book, Always A Reckoning, and featured a painting of a younger Rosalynn after the text. “She’d smile, and birds would feel that they no longer had to sing, or it may be I failed to hear their song,” Jimmy poured out his heart in the poem, expressing how much he admired her from afar.

Jimmy and Rosalynn met as babies

Jimmy’s poem to Rosalynn was first published when she was 60 years old, and it further read, “With shyness gone and hair caressed with gray, her smile still makes the birds forget to sing and me to hear their song.” Their parents were friends, with three-year-old Jimmy visiting Rosalynn at the hospital after her birth in 1927.

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The first couple would start dating while Jimmy was in the US Naval Academy, and then get married the following year. Their union created a big family of three sons— John William “Jack,” James Earl “Chip,” Donnel Jeffrey “Jeff,” and their only daughter, Amy with 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The Carter duo always supported each other

The Carters’ longtime friend, DuBose Porter, previously told PEOPLE of their reliance on each other during trying times. “Sometimes it’s difficult to know where one ends and the other begins,” he said of the couple, who spent a couple of days in hospice care before Rosalynn died.

The former First Lady was diagnosed with dementia in May, while Jimmy paused all medical intervention over his own health challenges to “spend his remaining time at home with his family.” The former 39th President made an appearance at the Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church on the Emory University campus for his late wife’s tribute ceremony.