You are about to read a short story about four people, the
story is about three men and one woman who either made or almost made
Retirement a Death Sentence. The characters in this story are 65-year-old Len, 68-year-old
Fred, 79-year-old Mark, and 62-year-old Caroline, the one thing they all had in
common was they were all retired, but they all lived life during retirement
much differently.
Len â 65 years old â Worked as a Network Technician
Len is the first one I want to tell you about because he worked
on a job for 32 years, now he is 65 and the company gave him an ultimatum,
either resign with a special payout or get terminated, because he is getting to the point where the
job is too demanding as he do not finish his duties on a regular basis. Even
though he couldnât keep up he was still the first person at the office. He
arrived every morning at 6am even though he was not supposed to be there until
8am.
He didnât want to retire because he felt like working was
his life, I have always believed the old saying that âsome people work to live
while others live to workâ and Len was one of those people who live to work. Len
was married to a woman who was 20 years younger than him so I know in the back
of his mind, if he retired, she might look at him as an old man. Len told his
Wife about the amount of money he would receive if he accepted the retirement
offer and she encouraged him to take the money and to retire. Len retired then
30 days after his Wife called to let us know that he passed away peacefully in
his sleep. I was wondering what happened to him because he would still come to
the job during lunch break to talk to everyone then one day he didnât show.
Fred - 68 years
old â Worked as a Custodian
Fred had been a Custodian for different companies over the years,
but he never had any extended periods of unemployment there were always a job waiting if he got laid
off, terminated, or quit. He loved working because it made him feel useful.
Fred had a hard life because the women he chose always used him and never
really loved him, they loved that he worked a full-time job as a Custodian then
mow yards and maintain lawns on the weekends. The women he had been married to
or long term relationship with never worked so Fred was always the one who
worked so being retired was going to be both a mental and financial issue for
him.
Fred had to retire because he was having a lot of aches and
pains in his knees and some of the deliveries were getting too heavy for him to
lift by himself, he was too proud to ask for help. One day he lifted a box of fruit
for the kitchen and hurt his arm, within two hours his right arm had swollen,
and he couldnât move it because of the intense pain. He went to the doctor and
the doctor said it would take about a week to four weeks to heal, he told his supervisor,
and his response was, âWell, we are sorry, but you no longer qualify for this
particular job, because the boxes will always be that heavy so today will be
your last day.
Fred went home and told his Wife and she asked, âHow long
will it be before you can go back to work?â, He said, âBaby I canât go back, I
am terminated but it is ok because I can apply for my retirement.â She said, âRetirement?
Retirement will not be enough to pay all of these bills.â, Fred felt so bad and
also less than a man at this point so he lost his appetite for a lot of food
and decided to only drink the Ensure Meal Replacement Shakes, he lost of much weight
until the last time I saw him, he looked like he was very sick and near death
but his Wife still looked like a million dollars so I guess she found someone
with money and probably just waiting for him to die so she could collect the
Insurance Money. Fred died after one
year of just drinking Ensure Meal Replacement Shakes for Breakfast, Lunch and
Dinner. RIP Fred!
Mark â 79 years old â Worked as a City Bus Operator
Mark is a married man, but he loves to flirt with younger
women, he had the perfect job to meet lots of women. As a city bus operator, he
would come in contact with over 30 single or unhappily married women per day.
Mark had a good Wife because for over 30 years she was waking up at 2:30am to
cook his breakfast that she would serve with coffee so he could leave at 3:30am,
he shift started at 5:00am and his job was about one hour away from where they
lived.
Mark was very slick because he would split his check into
money going to the credit union, checking account and an actual check that he
shows to his Wife who had no idea about the three way split. He would use the hidden
money to take women he met out to dinner. He was lucky that he was allowed to
continue to drive the City Bus and receive his Social Security Benefits until
one day he ran in the back of another bus because he was preoccupied looking at
a woman walking on the sidewalk, he tired to lie about the situation but the
cameras on the bus told the whole story.
Fred didnât want to tell his Wife what
happened, so he committed suicide in his car with the gun he kept in the glove compartment
for protection from carjackers.
Caroline â 62 years old â Worked as a Teacher
Carolineâs Husband had left her for a younger woman and
after he left it was hard for her to concentrate as a Teacher so at 62 years
old, she decided to retire early. Caroline thought once she was retired, she
would have more time to spend with her family especially her grandchildren, it
started out that way but then everyone had something else to do. It got so
boring for her, so she got some cats, I donât know where she got the cats from
but the last time I counted, she had over 15 cats.
Caroline had become a hoarder, not only was she collecting
cats, but she was also collecting trash and broken furniture that her neighbors
in the apartment threw away in the dumpsters and sometimes on the side of the
dumpsters. Her apartment was so cluttered it was hard for her to walk around.
One day her air conditioning stopped working and she had to call the apartment office
to request repair work. The maintenance man knocked on the door and when she
opened it, he ran away, the smell coming out of the apartment was so strong, he
refused to enter.
The apartment office called the police which they should
have called Health and Human Services, when the police arrived, they looked
around and seen all the cats and trash. The police called Health and Human
Services but not before telling her, she had to leave immediately. She asked, âWhat
about my cats?â they told her they would call Animal Control to get the cats.
She told them she was not leaving until she was sure that Animal Control came
to get her cats. Animal Control came and removed 12 cats and she started
shaking her head. They asked her why she is shaking her head and she said, âI
had 15 cats so there are still three cats still inside.â They went back in and
found three dead cats, the police said, âWell, we are taking you to a medical
hospital then you will need to live in some type of Senior Citizen Community. Is
there anyone we can call to help you?â, she said, âNo, even though I am alive,
I am dead to all my family, and I have no friends.â She got into the police car
without anymore hesitation. Caroline lived but can you really call it living,
at 62 years old, you have to be forced to live in a Senior Citizen Community
for the rest of your natural life?