joining us now is race and culture reporter for the atlanta journal, ernie suggs. ernie has covered the late president for years, as well as covering the stories about the carter center. and i want to remind everyone who is watching, as you see people who are passing behind me, many of them are coming for maybe an opportunity to see the motorcade pass by for security purposes. they have not confirmed what the path will be to the carter center, but there are some people who may be waiting for that. they're coming to drop off notes and flowers and and packages of peanuts in honor of the late president. ernie, as i come to you, and we've heard so many people share personal stories about their time with the late president, you are a reporter, a journalist, but you also have a story, and it relates to your mother how you met the late president. tell us that story. all right. we're having an audio. issue, ernie. let me try one more time. ernie, how is your audio? yeah, i hear you. fine. let's start that story. okay. yes. go ahead. >> sorry about that. yeah. so i grew up i

. >> joining me now is ernie suggs. he's a reporter with the atlanta journal constitution, and suggs covered carter for the ajc. and he developed a close personal friendship with him. ernie, thank you so much for coming in. thank you for having me this morning. before we get to your relationship and how you're remembering him, i want to talk a little bit about this tiny town you visited many times. you've been to the peanut farm. you've been to carter's boyhood home, and you just heard there from some of the people that eva mckend spoke with. i mean, there's so much love and reverence for the former president. it's a tiny town, right? and, and and the fact that just a year ago, it lost rosalynn carter. and now you have former president carter, who is now gone. can you talk about just this profound sense of loss that this tiny community is feeling today? >> well, when you think about plains, georgia, and we think about the carters, you think about love. and president carter has lived there for president carter was 100 ye