In the beginning .....

The decision was made early in 2009 that Marilyn and I were both ready to retire. By the end of the year we would have given almost 10 years to our jobs and perhaps it was time to move on to the next stage of our lives. It is fair to say that Marilyn was the one who needed to be convinced that retirement could be an attractive option. She was convinced that I would have no trouble keeping myself busy but, in her mind, she ‘had no staying-at-home skills’ and would likely go mad with boredom. Her only plans for retirement were to become a hospital visitor and that certainly wouldn’t fulfil her in the long term.

Apart from my Rotary involvement, neither of us had any particular interests outside of work. Marilyn’s job as coordinator of the girls’ Boarding House at LCGS had been very demanding and took up all her energies, leaving nothing left for the normal interests of those in the 60+ age group (whatever those interests might be!).

We were on a cruise during Christmas and New Year when the first suggestions came from Marilyn that this might be her last year. She came to the realisation that, if we wanted to enjoy more cruises and other adventures while we were still reasonably fit, we shouldn’t leave it any longer. Of course, I was delighted. I’d been worried about Marilyn’s health for a while, especially considering the stress under which she worked constantly. Now there was light at the end of the tunnel and something to look forward to. So, the decision was made … the problem now was to plan the sort of retirement we could afford but which would let us do the sorts of things we enjoyed - particularly traveling.