Year of Retirement

    One year ago today Leroy was honored at a Shank Door company meeting for his 48 years of service with the company. His retirement would be effective on March 5, 2021. He received a nice cash bonus and a big poster of pictures from his years with the company.

   On March 5, exactly 48 years from his first day with Shank Door, he turned in his company truck, cell phone, and uniforms and walked out for the last time. It was a bittersweet moment, but he was 77 and felt he was no longer able to get enough work done in a day to earn what he was being paid.

    Retirement was a big change in our lives but was not a difficult adjustment. His plan for retirement was to do volunteer work and he began with helping to pack food at Christian Aid Ministries. As the year moved along, he found three more places to volunteer and often went somewhere at least once a week. The place he went most often was to Lantern Books, and I went with him. I could help put price labels on books while he put them on the shelves. It was a sitting job I could do but I couldn't stand all day to bag food at CAM.

   Leroy's fifth volunteer job was right here helping me around the house. He was quite willing to reach and carry things for me. He actually enjoyed hanging laundry on the line and helping with the dishes every day. It was a blessing to have him go shopping with me to load and unload the bags of groceries. I really needed his help during the months I had severe pain in my hip and could hardly walk. He did not complain about being my go-fer. There is enough farmer in him to enjoy taking care of the garden, and without him there would be no garden. Of course, he also did the yard work and maintenance around the place and played with his tractors. We had time to go places and do things together during the week that we couldn't have done before.

   Since I am the one who has always handled the books, I wondered how the finances would hold out with no paycheck coming in. Now, almost a year later, we have had no problem. The resources we have were more than enough to meet our basic needs and even a few extras.

   We are enjoying retirement and spending time together. If you have trouble getting along before retirement, it will only get worse afterward. Our children say they never heard us argue. We did not always agree on everything but worked things out privately. The secret to the happy golden years of retirement is to build a strong marriage before retirement. This has been a year of blessing and we look forward to many more, as long as we both shall live.