The word retirement means “confusion” to me.  The first thought I had when I realized I am retired was, “What do I do now?”  You see, I didn’t pick a date and then retire on that date.  My retirement came to me as a process. 

I had my 60^th birthday without much fanfare.  Of course, I had cake and ice cream because that is the best reason to have a birthday.  I was working as a Clinical Social Worker in an Outpatient Mental Health Clinic.  A very good Mental Health Clinic which focused on what the client’s needs were to live the best life that they could.  Most of the clients had long term mental illness, the very worst kind, so day to day life was a challenge without many joys.  We tried to give the clients a few laughs and joyful moments as well as good medical care.  I continued to work with this agency for two more years before I had to leave.

My husband received word that the company he worked for, and still does, was bought by another company.  You know, big fish eats little fish.  We were being transferred to Atlanta, GA.  Actually, the idea was exciting to us.  We knew we wouldn’t want to retire and continue to live on the East Coast because the price of living is outrageous.  We just never could decide where would be a good place to live our so called “Golden Years”, somewhere down the road of life.  We sold our house and we were so happy that we found housing to be in our favor down south.  More house for less money.  We didn’t buy a huge house.  We bought a house that had the amenities our present home didn’t have.  Now we were going to have a basement, a fireplace in the family room, and a wonderful wooded lot with a deck overlooking the woods, and a garage for the cars.  The house cost about $30,000 more dollars than our house on the East Coast sold for, but the taxes are lower and insurance is lower.  The company paid for our move so that eliminated moving expenses for the most part.