retirement
noun
the action or fact of leaving one's job and ceasing to work
Hello - I my name is Liz and I am retired! For the last 6 weeks!
Some background about me; I'm 63, married, a family with 2 grandchildren and 2 dogs. I've worked since I was 15 1/2 left school with no qualifications & no ambitions, all I wanted was what lots of young women my age wanted in the early 70's; to be a wife and mum & have pencil thin eyebrows! Mmmnnn, none of that worked out as expected except the eyebrows!
So at 17 I realised I was soon treading a path well trod by other women with no big education, that of any work to help supplement low household income as well as run a home, raise a child and be a grown up. So I've done a huge range of jobs over the years from cleaning, working in a fish and chip shop, home-help and shop girl with many things in between to gradually over the years progressing into clerical work and finishing my 'formal' career path being a senior NHS and then local government Manager leading whole departments.
In that 46 years I had the usual life experiences of loss of parents and sibling, sadly one of my 2 children lived for less than a year, my marriage was one of the 42% that ended in divorce, a long-term lung condition decided to make its significance known as well and I realised life was not like the fairy tales I once read.
Some 15 years ago I unexpectedly met the man who's since become my soul mate, my mentor, my rock and all round good egg. With him life turned upside down, a new part of the world, a new career and I ended up running a huge award winning business in hospitality for the last 11 years with him.
Some 15 years ago I unexpectedly met the man who's since become my soul mate, my mentor, my rock and all round good egg. With him life turned upside down, a new part of the world, a new career and I ended up running a huge award winning business in hospitality for the last 11 years with him.
18 months ago with declining health (predominantly stress induced for me) we took the decision to plan our retirement for 2019. This involved everything the best articles tell you to do - financial planning, health, home etc. So of course we were fully prepared for retirement weren't we? After all, I'd planned for marriages, childbirth, holidays, how hard could it be. Well, a bit harder than I thought, I'm slowly learning!
The calendar was crossed off day by day for a whole year, we'd sorted our finances, we talked excitedly of all we would do. The date of 6th November couldn't come quick enough. Well it came, we partied, we partied hard! So hard!! We had cards and presents, messages of goodwill and farewells. All the cards talked about no more Mondays, no more alarm clocks, time to yourselves etc etc.
We ate and ate and ate for the first few weeks, we drank great wines and champagnes, we 'treated' ourselves had a few days away here and there, and then slowly it started to dawn on me/us that partying couldn't last for ever.
THIS was now our life................. after 15 years of always having a business between us, it was now just us. JUST US! Maybe I hadn't planned quite as well as I thought I had.
I hope you'll enjoy this journey through the next chapter of my life, warts and all. I promise to be honest, my language can get a bit fruity and I'm not to everyones taste!
Liz x
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