My parents, and therefore I too, had a sad experience. My father’s industry imploded around his ears when he was 63, and he was “retired”. My mother, who was younger, and who had only started to work when we kids were teens, still enjoyed the social aspects of her job, and wasn’t ready to retire. They planned for her to work a further 6-7 years and then move to Florida.
In the sixth year, my father suddenly needed a risky operation and although he survived it, he contracted pneumonia in the hospital and died. My mother had always been a great one for saying:”Man proposes, God disposes”, but it didn’t seem to have ever crossed her mind that this could actually happen to them, and she was devastated. My father had not been terribly happy retired by himself, and my mother was never happy again for the rest of her life.
Both my sibling and I retired very early, in my case in mid-professional career, as soon as my much older spouse was reasonably ready. We had a long, adventurous, wonderful retirement, as unlike my parents’ as possible.
In the sixth year, my father suddenly needed a risky operation and although he survived it, he contracted pneumonia in the hospital and died. My mother had always been a great one for saying:”Man proposes, God disposes”, but it didn’t seem to have ever crossed her mind that this could actually happen to them, and she was devastated. My father had not been terribly happy retired by himself, and my mother was never happy again for the rest of her life.
Both my sibling and I retired very early, in my case in mid-professional career, as soon as my much older spouse was reasonably ready. We had a long, adventurous, wonderful retirement, as unlike my parents’ as possible.
Statistics: Posted by littlebird — Tue Mar 12, 2024 6:29 pm — Replies 31 — Views 1770