... About Retirement

Wilbur and Lela - 2014 - 45th Anniversary

“So Lela, how is your retirement going?” I have heard the question dozens of time since February 2013. At the end of this month, it will be two years since I retired. So far, I would say my retirement years have been the best years of my life! My mother says I am like the Energized Bunny – I just keep right on going and going. I am really enjoying everything I am doing. I know I am truly blessed!

After going through some challenging times as well as some crises, I have been able to develop somewhat of a schedule as to how I spend my time. I look at the schedule as if I were working several part-time jobs devoting much of my time to those “jobs” as follows:

1. Helping Wilbur with his projects has been a lot of fun. I help him mostly with detail work on his wood projects. I have learned to use a lot of his tools – band saw, table saw, miter saw, reciprocating saw, sabre saw, jig saw, blade runner, electric nail gun, electric stapler, drill press, router, roofing nailer, power screw driver, to name just a few. When I see some of this tools, I wonder what I can make. I’m hoping now that I am retired, I’ll be able to make a few wood projects myself. We shall see.

2. Helping Wilburwith some health issues is just part of being his wife. I try to help him all I can. In the spring of 2014 both Wilbur and my father became critically ill and spend time in the hospital. Thanks to God’s intervention, Wilbur made a full recovery and came home. I take him to doctor appointments and keep tabs on his medications. He biggest issue right now is his vision. I try to help him cope with a lot of things we take for granted such as using the telephone and not being able to see the numbers.

3. Helping to care for my parents has given me the opportunity to get to know them better. Shortly into my retirement, it was apparent that they needed help. Mother had not been driving for years and just before I retired Daddy stopped driving. Mother fell in June of 2013 and needed care 24/7. When Daddy had been so sick in 2014, he did recover; but did not get to come home. He now resides in a personal care home. So I am involved in providing transportation to doctor’s offices, etc. After doctor appointments, we usually take them out to eat. Family members take Mother to see Daddy almost every day. Occasionally, I will take him to his favorite bookstores. My twin sister helped care for our parents until health issues prevented her from helping. My older sister and a friend of Mother’s help me with Mother's care. Since I love to cook, I do most of the cooking. Mother and I have had lots of good conversations as I drive her to and from Daddy’s personal care home. It has been fun hearing Mother and Daddy reminisce about years gone by and when they were dating. I just might write some of that in another post!

4. Helping to take care of our home is just part of being a homemaker. I was helping a lot around the house before I retied. Maintaining the house is just something that needs to be done and using Wilbur’s tool make it easy. I love to cook as well as bake; so I’ve been trying lots of new recipes. Of course there’s always cleaning and laundry to be done.

5. Helping out at my church and working in other areas of ministry is my true passion! Right now I am able to dedicate some time each day (more time on some days than others) to these interest - I still continue to make photo greeting cards for the card ministry at my church, for my mother and for myself. I am still on a rotation bases for leading the Wednesday evening prayer meetings at my church. I have also become involved in the Women’s Ministry at my church and am working on a new project that I am very excited about. However, the project has not been finalized. I also help my mother with nursing home services two Saturdays each month.

6. And when there is time left, I pursue some of my other interests. Since I love to write, when someone suggested I should write a journey, I decided to start my blog. I have also had more time to read. To encourage others, I mail my photo greeting cards to lots of folks with a note included.

Eight years ago (is it really that long?) I decided to start a countdown to my sixty-second birthday when according to IRS guidelines, I could take early retirement and start collecting Social Security. Photography is one of my hobbies; so I decided to take a photo each month, print an 8x10 copy of the photo, and somewhere on it print the number of months left until I reached age sixty-two (see photo right.) I would hang the photo where I could see it. I started with seventy-two months. After a while I stopped the countdown. It seemed a bit futile. Six years was off into the future and if all went well, I would work until I was at least sixty-six.  The last year that I worked before I retired, I worked from home fulltime. I worked the afternoon shift and helped my mother and father during the mornings a couple of days a week. As my sixty-second birthday approached it was obvious that they needed a lot more help than I was able to provide. My husband also needed help. I was working as a Customer Service Rep and having been a programmer/analyst for over twenty-five years, I was out of my “comfort zone.” Every day was a challenge for me. All was not going well; so I decided to take early retirement at age sixty-two and not wait until I was sixty-six. I chose the end of February 2013 to be my retirement date. Little did I know what the future held at the point. I had made the best decision possible! When my twin sister’s husband passed away in February 2013, I was able to be with her. Later, I spend a couple of weeks helping her pack and move to Pennsylvania.

I took a short break from it all, when Wilbur and I enjoyed an awesome dinner cruise on the Spirit of Philadelphia for our forty-fifth wedding anniversary last year (see photo above left) I do not know what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future! No matter what our family will face in the future, God will be there with us!