How you doin'? Life as a Senior.

Medusa said:
Well then, I enjoy and benefit from other people's perspectives on poetry. :) I'd go so far as to say I need them to help focus my lens.

My husband, boyfriend and adult son will all encourage me when asked. I haven't asked for a while; I don't think I wanna be encouraged right now, which sounds wallow-y, I know.
Click to expand...
🤣😂🤣😂🤣😅
 

Welcome to the forum, @Boon54! This is a great group of people, and there are many topics to choose from.

I know the feeling about working and not retiring. I have been teaching online English classes at a university for 3 years. Before that, I was taking classes for my Ph.D. and defended in 2022 (Yeah, at this late age). At first, I tried teaching full-time, but grading 150 assignments a week was too much. I had no time for my other activities, like writing, art, music, etc.

So I'm only teaching one class per term, which is working out. I also am involved in grad. student dissertations, and that is fulfilling. I attend art classes at the Senior center, and tutor a student through the literacy council in our area. Being a widow for 12 years has forced me to recreate my life and identity. I also write poetry, which I have shared here on the forum. Keeping busy has helped me in so many ways. I will be reaching 70 in two years, and have been thinking about fully retiring then. But we'll see when that time comes. If my health keeps up, I'll keep working. My eyesight has been getting worse lately, but today my retinal specialist said I could keep doing what I am doing.
 
palides2021 said:
Welcome to the forum, @Boon54! This is a great group of people, and there are many topics to choose from.

I know the feeling about working and not retiring. I have been teaching online English classes at a university for 3 years. Before that, I was taking classes for my Ph.D. and defended in 2022 (Yeah, at this late age). At first, I tried teaching full-time, but grading 150 assignments a week was too much. I had no time for my other activities, like writing, art, music, etc.

So I'm only teaching one class per term, which is working out. I also am involved in grad. student dissertations, and that is fulfilling. I attend art classes at the Senior center, and tutor a student through the literacy council in our area. Being a widow for 12 years has forced me to recreate my life and identity. I also write poetry, which I have shared here on the forum. Keeping busy has helped me in so many ways. I will be reaching 70 in two years, and have been thinking about fully retiring then. But we'll see when that time comes. If my health keeps up, I'll keep working. My eyesight has been getting worse lately, but today my retinal specialist said I could keep doing what I am doing.
Click to expand...
Thank you, palides. This is very helpful. Nice to know.
 

A belated welcome Boon54, perhaps I should have welcomed you sooner but I am rather busy, you see although I'm seventy-nine, I still work. And work, of late, has been extremely busy.

When work is a chore and having to drag yourself out of bed to reluctantly do it in order to put bread on the table, does make it easy to empathise with those who can't wait to retire. However, when work is interesting, when you are rising to a challenge, engaging with others, in those circumstances work is more like a paid hobby.

When I was fourteen, a car driver collided with me on a pedestrian crossing. The impact fractured my right leg. A couple of operations later I still couldn't wriggle my toes. The surgeon was unable to match up the severed nerve ends. Amputation loomed. Step up Mr. Penrose, seventy-six year old Mr. Penrose. "Don't take the boy's leg off," he said, "let me try."

Coming to from the anaesthetic, Mr. Penrose at my bedside. "Wriggle your toes for me," he said. Wriggle, wriggle, wriggle. My father wept when he shook hands with my surgeon, my seventy-six year old surgeon. Like Mr.' Penrose, working past the recognised retirement age is a case of horses for courses. I'm eighty next birthday, I shall probably spend the day at work, I'll let you know.
 
Welcome to the forum!! As far as retirement goes…the hard part for many professional persons is finding relevance. If work is your identity…the answer you provide when someone asks you “what do you DO?”….you will feel better if you have something to say to that question. For some it is volunteering…others consult. Some garden or paint. Find your passion.
 
Breezing right along. I've had a few health set backs like prostate cancer, diabetes and stage 4 throat cancer. Just finished chemo and radiation almost two weeks ago, after with 6 weeks in the hospital. I moved away from family and old friends when I retired and absolutely love living alone in a new state where no one knows me. Like walking a couple miles every morning and trying to stay healthy and strong.
 
Last edited:
I am happy that I can help my husband as he has medical disabilities and I am able to keep going. I do need help at times and have some nice younger people who will assist.

Some days things seem to go wrong and I think, "What else can go wrong". Then the next day things fall into place.

I hope all goes well for you and you can enjoy life as it happens.
 
Muskrat said:
Welcome to the forum!! As far as retirement goes…the hard part for many professional persons is finding relevance. If work is your identity…the answer you provide when someone asks you “what do you DO?”….you will feel better if you have something to say to that question. For some it is volunteering…others consult. Some garden or paint. Find your passion.
Click to expand...
This is good advice for a lot of us.
 
horseless carriage said:
A belated welcome Boon54, perhaps I should have welcomed you sooner but I am rather busy, you see although I'm seventy-nine, I still work. And work, of late, has been extremely busy.

When work is a chore and having to drag yourself out of bed to reluctantly do it in order to put bread on the table, does make it easy to empathise with those who can't wait to retire. However, when work is interesting, when you are rising to a challenge, engaging with others, in those circumstances work is more like a paid hobby.

When I was fourteen, a car driver collided with me on a pedestrian crossing. The impact fractured my right leg. A couple of operations later I still couldn't wriggle my toes. The surgeon was unable to match up the severed nerve ends. Amputation loomed. Step up Mr. Penrose, seventy-six year old Mr. Penrose. "Don't take the boy's leg off," he said, "let me try."

Coming to from the anaesthetic, Mr. Penrose at my bedside. "Wriggle your toes for me," he said. Wriggle, wriggle, wriggle. My father wept when he shook hands with my surgeon, my seventy-six year old surgeon. Like Mr.' Penrose, working past the recognised retirement age is a case of horses for courses. I'm eighty next birthday, I shall probably spend the day at work, I'll let you know.
Click to expand...
What a rich wonderful life you've lived. An inspiration.
 
Rae said:
I am happy that I can help my husband as he has medical disabilities and I am able to keep going. I do need help at times and have some nice younger people who will assist.

Some days things seem to go wrong and I think, "What else can go wrong". Then the next day things fall into place.

I hope all goes well for you and you can enjoy life as it happens.
Click to expand...
I'd like to think so too. As I grow older with my life, love becomes just that - being there for one another.
 
To answer you inquiries and about your ailments Boon: "But maybe you can share your own journey? Are you retired? At what age? How old are you now? I've got an arthritic knee, so maybe looking to do a knee surgery soon. Early glaucoma (maybe), so they're doing preventive laser treatment."
I retired one month before my 51st birthday, 27 years ago. That same year I got my first digital piano, began composing music and found my half siblings and a whole "new family". I intended to "shop" my tapes for someone else to perform my songs, but wound up releasing my first multi-genre album in 2003. Keeping up with my mother's, husband's and grandchildren's needs, activities and appointments made for a very busy first decade of retirement. We also started to travel more...not anyplace fancy, but we had fun, interesting experiences. Sometimes we visited family in other states.

I released my second multi-genre album in November of last year, after a long hiatus. Last month, I guested on an internet radio show hosted by one of my neighbors. How that came about was serendipitous, to say the least. Besides his career working with cancer patients and studying for his PhD, he's a voice actor, writer and composes music. We will be collaborating on his music and he has asked me to co-host his show. He also now refers to me as his manager, despite my objections. :LOL: I'm more of an advisor who suggests topics for his show and am providing guidance for what steps he needs to take to get his music out there. Needless to say, my retirement has seen its share of pleasant surprises.

In 1989, I discovered I had a blind spot at the bottom of my right eye. It took a couple of years and visits to three different specialists to get the proper diagnosis, which was low tension glaucoma. I also had cataracts. In 2005, my glaucoma specialist did cataract and glaucoma surgery, one eye at a time. She surprised me by correcting my astigmatism after which, for the first time since I was about 10, I didn't need glasses!

I required laser surgery after healing from the invasive surgeries. I think I ultimately got three treatments over time. The right eye doesn't even require drops and pressures in that eye consistently stay lower than in the left (in which I use three different drops daily). It would be great if you can get by with just the laser treatments, which are a piece of cake.

I was told close to 20 years ago that I have arthritic knees (which I had since I was about 37) due to two torn, healed menisci. I was told I'd need knee replacement surgery with a couple of years. I got two cortisone shots, started drinking decaf green tea daily and I swear, didn't need the third shot nor have I needed the surgery so far.

After the initial diagnosis, I did 11 weeks of physical therapy and have been doing the knee strengthening exercises the specialist prescribed intermittently. I'm now doing them more regularly because I can feel my knees weakening and buckling when I don't. And as far as dementia...I think many of us have concerns about that possibility. Seems like you have a nice career and the icing on the cake is that you like what you do. Just keep challenging your mind and dementia might be avoided.
 
Last edited:
OneEyedDiva said:
To answer you inquiries and about your ailments Boon: "But maybe you can share your own journey? Are you retired? At what age? How old are you now? I've got an arthritic knee, so maybe looking to do a knee surgery soon. Early glaucoma (maybe), so they're doing preventive laser treatment."
I retired one month before my 51st birthday, 27 years ago. That same year I got my first digital piano, began composing music and found my half siblings and a whole "new family". I intended to "shop" my tapes for someone else to perform my songs, but wound up releasing my first multi-genre album in 2003. Keeping up with my mother's, husband's and grandchildren's needs, activities and appointments made for a very busy first decade of retirement. We also started to travel more...not anyplace fancy, but we had fun, interesting experiences. Sometimes we visited family in other states.

I released my second multi-genre album in November of last year, after a long hiatus. Last month, I guested on an internet radio show hosted by one of my neighbors. How that came about was serendipitous, to say the least. Besides his career working with cancer patients and studying for his PhD, he's a voice actor, writer and composes music. We will be collaborating on his music and he has asked me to co-host his show. He also now refers to me as his manager, despite my objections. :LOL: I'm more of an advisor who suggests topics for his show and am providing guidance for what steps he needs to take to get his music out there. Needless to say, my retirement has seen its share of pleasant surprises.

In 1989, I discovered I had a blind spot at the bottom of my right eye. It took a couple of years and visits to three different specialists to get the proper diagnosis, which was low tension glaucoma. I also had cataracts. In 2005, my glaucoma specialist did cataract and glaucoma surgery, one eye at a time. She surprised me by correcting my astigmatism after which, for the first time since I was about 10, I didn't need glasses!

I required laser surgery after healing from the invasive surgeries. I think I ultimately got three treatments over time. The right eye doesn't even require drops and pressures in that eye consistently stay lower than in the left (in which I use three different drops daily). It would be great if you can get by with just the laser treatments, which are a piece of cake.

I was told close to 20 years ago that I have arthritic knees (which I had since I was about 37) due to two torn, healed menisci. I was told I'd need knee replacement surgery with a couple of years. I got two cortisone shots, started drinking decaf green tea daily and I swear, didn't need the third shot nor have I needed the surgery so far.

After the initial diagnosis, I did 11 weeks of physical therapy and have been doing the knee strengthening exercises the specialist prescribed intermittently. I'm now doing them more regularly because I can feel my knees weakening and buckling when I don't. And as far as dementia...I think many of us have concerns about that possibility. Seems like you have a nice career and the icing on the cake is that you like what you do. Just keep challenging your mind and dementia might be avoided.
Click to expand...
Thank you. This is brilliant. You're an inspiration. My journey, though, seems to be moving towards God rather than finding a new hobby or returning to an old one. As we get older, my wife and I are naturally spending more time together, housework and just caring for one another. In some ways, I'm now more busy than ever.

One of the funny things about my life is that I don't get to do what I want but find myself in situations where I need to find a compromise solution or something. It as if I've always set my sights too high. Too idealistic, perhaps.

I've always ended up doing something less or not the thing I want. Despite this, I think that it's worked out for the best. Which is another reason I turned to God. If He's been guiding me all this while, maybe I should have a chat with Him and find out more about His plans, lol.
 
Boon54 said:
For me, it was 70. I suddenly felt old when I reached 70. Until then, I thought I'd just grow older but when I got to 70, it kinda happened all at the same time. In particular, I lost much of my drive and I found I generally needed more time to do things I used to take for granted. I now take 2 to 3 hrs to get up. I get more easily flustered when rushed. More forgetful. But, it seems more than ever, living life is a conscious daily effort. I thought I lived life the way I wanted to, I was just coasting along, taking a lot of stuff for granted. But now, I realise I've got to decide, make a conscious effort to keep going, change my self-perception, etc. Thanks for sharing, Medusa.
Click to expand...
In your picture , A California rabbit ?
 
I am nearly 81 and my family is my basic motivation for living.
All things considered life is pretty good and I enjoy it.
I have seen so much in my lifetime that it would be hard for me to not be opinionated about a lot of things.
I have gone way and above when doing things for my wife of 60 years because she has had medical problems that prevented her from doing everything that she could and I have had to take up the slack around here but after seeing a doctor who changed three of her medicines her condition that she has suffered with for years now may be under control and if it keeps working we may be able to live more natural lives without having things that were limiting to her.
We are hoping that this is a permanent fix for her problems and we will be able to live more normal lives.
 
GP44 said:
I am nearly 81 and my family is my basic motivation for living.
All things considered life is pretty good and I enjoy it.
I have seen so much in my lifetime that it would be hard for me to not be opinionated about a lot of things.
I have gone way and above when doing things for my wife of 60 years because she has had medical problems that prevented her from doing everything that she could and I have had to take up the slack around here but after seeing a doctor who changed three of her medicines her condition that she has suffered with for years now may be under control and if it keeps working we may be able to live more natural lives without having things that were limiting to her.
We are hoping that this is a permanent fix for her problems and we will be able to live more normal lives.
Click to expand...
Thank you for sharing, GP44. It's very true that as we get to this age, all that matters are those who are close to us. You sound like you've lived a blessed life and are a blessing to those around you. I'm sure I speak for everyone else that we're rooting for you and your wife too.
 
Boon54 said:
Thank you. This is brilliant. You're an inspiration. My journey, though, seems to be moving towards God rather than finding a new hobby or returning to an old one. As we get older, my wife and I are naturally spending more time together, housework and just caring for one another. In some ways, I'm now more busy than ever.

One of the funny things about my life is that I don't get to do what I want but find myself in situations where I need to find a compromise solution or something. It as if I've always set my sights too high. Too idealistic, perhaps.

I've always ended up doing something less or not the thing I want. Despite this, I think that it's worked out for the best. Which is another reason I turned to God. If He's been guiding me all this while, maybe I should have a chat with Him and find out more about His plans, lol.
Click to expand...
Someone sent me a TikTok (I think it was) on Facebook. It was an elderly woman talking about her life and the importance, as well as satisfaction she found by giving her life to God. Can't go wrong...right?! I'm not on TikTok, so can't share it with you. It's wonderful that you and your wife are able to spend more time together in what sounds like a loving, caring relationship. It seems like you are following the right path Boon.

Thank you so much for your nice comment about my post and you're welcome of course❣️ I'm glad I was able to inspire you! I never gave you a proper welcome. I hope you'll stick around and will enjoy the forum as much as I do.

Welcome So Glad You're Here.jpg
 
When I passed 65, I knew I was old but most of the people I meet in this senior community are in their 80s. I'm single (long-time divorced). I sometimes think about dementia/Alzheimer's but I rely upon my faith to stay encouraged. I do stretches everyday and I'm fairly healthy. I do have lower back and left side soreness sometimes but I don't have to take pain-relievers and it doesn't bring my life to a halt. I have slight cloudy areas in my eyes (more in the right) but it hasn't prevented me from reading and using the computer. My mom and my dad had cataract surgery.

My digestive system is struggling and I've been juggling foods for a few years now, especially in the last 3 yrs or so. I have frustrating problems with gas and bloating. I have to watch what I eat and how much because of acid reflux/Gerd/hiatal hernia, etc. Months ago, sadly, I had to cut garlic and onions out of my diet. I was so unhappy about it but you know we can do anything that is necessary to be without pain. 😌 But the challenges with digestion and elimination really have been helping me to get control of my bad eating habits, which I've been aware of for a long time.

I don't plan to start going to doctors, taking medicines and having procedures because I don't want to be bothered with all of that. None of us really know what we will decide tomorrow but I hope I don't change my mind about this. I helped my mom for a few years before she passed away and she had regular doctor appts and so much medication for her many conditions. I think that has a lot to do with me not wanting to go through all of that. I do want to manage and be without pain though, whenever possible. When my body is done I just want to go.

I joyfully retired at 62 and I have a happy, busy creative life at home and online. There is more that I want to do with my life and I don't want to and don't intent to live in senior affordable housing for the rest of my life. I will reply to some others here soon.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top