Fearless Writing Challenge, Day 54: What I Will Do When I Retire

When I retire…

These words were magic when I was little. My grandfather worked as a candy salesman (and yes, he had a closet FULL of candy in his house!) and eventually retired like many men of his generation.

His wife, my grandmother, raised three girls and was a homemaker. I don’t think she felt fulfilled, considering she tried to kill herself by running the car in a closed garage on more than one occasion.

On my father’s side, my grandfather was a janitor. He retired. And gambled. He liked the ponies. He also drank a lot of beer. Once he got on the bus to go to Stanford University to watch me run.

His wife was also a homemaker (she may have also worked as a secretary) who raised three kids. Like my maternal grandmother, I don’t think she was particularly fulfilled as she suffered the death of a child by suicide and eventually died of cancer after laying in her bed, smoking and reading for years. She had a closet full of paperback books in her bedroom.

Now, on to my parents…my mom retired from “the phone company.” She took a golden handshake, gosh she must have been not much older than I am now…in her early 50s I guess.

She took a part-time job afterward, at a local department store, but quit after not too long. Supposedly it was because she and my dad liked to see live music and go camping, and her schedule had her working weekends and nights and they didn’t jive. But she was diagnosed with dementia at 55, so I’d guess there was an element of that creeping in at that point.

My step-dad still works.

My father just retired from teaching but he still coaches.

I wouldn’t say that they are “retired” in the way I once thought of retirement, honestly, they are working to survive. Granted, we live in an extremely expensive area, but still…

OK, so back to me, and what I will do when I retire – dream style here:

• Write
• Read
• Exercise
• Travel (Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, the US, Canada…)
• Live in Paris for a period of time where I will read, write, eat croissants and flâneur
• Spend time with friends
• Garden
• Watercolor

Frankly, not much different than what I do now, except the travel part.

What will you do when you retire? Or if you have, how do you spend your time? 

Dreamily,