JimmyandRosalynn Carter‘s 72-year love story began like many others, with a movie date.
And that was all the former president needed to know that Rosalynn was the one.
In a new interview withThe Washington Post, Carter, 93, recalls seeing his wife for the first time at the Plains United Methodist Church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, where the couple returned after Carter left office in 1981.
Carter was home from the Naval Academy and asked out young Eleanor Rosalynn Smith on the spot.
They went to a movie together, and Carter recalls telling his mother the next morning that he was going to marry Rosalynn.
“I didn’t know that for years,” Rosalynn chimed in with a smile.
Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn in 2018.Matt McClain/The Washington Post/Getty
Still smitten with his future wife, Carter returned to the Navy, where he coined the acronym “ILYTG” to express his passions.
” ‘I love you the goodest.’ That’s what my mother and daddy used to say back and forth, and I picked it up with Rosa,” the nation’s 39th president told PEOPLE in 2014 inan exclusive joint interviewwith his wife.
The monogram is inscribed on a compact he once gave his bride, the future first lady, that today is on display at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta.
“Now all our children do the same thing – ILYTG on the phone or in emails. They generally just put the initials,” Carter said. “And sometimes they change the initials and make you guess what they’re talking about.”
The couple told PEOPLE at the time that they attributed their long marriage to giving each other space, as well as their shared passion for service.
Matt McClain/The Washington Post/Getty
Now in their 90s, the former first couple remain dedicated to helping others, with Carter still teaching Sunday school at a local church, and helpingbuild homes for Habitat for Humanityas recently as last year.
TheWashington Postprofile details the couple’smodest and purposeful life today,which includes paper-plate dinners, flying commercial, and spending quiet afternoons in their $167,000 two-bedroom rancher.
Turning to Rosalynn, he asked, “And you?”
“No, I’m happy,” she said.
source: people.com
