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| RETIREMENT | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| By the time the chemo treatments were over I was 3 month past my 63rd birthday. My intentions had always been to retire on my 65th birthday. I asked Ron to retire with me so we could carry out our plans to winter in Florida and spend the summers in our home on the lake. Ron's first reaction was a resounding "No Way!". He insisted he would only be 57 which was too young to retire as his pension from work would not be high enough and he wouldn't be able to draw the government pensions until he was 60-65. I on the other hand, did not want to be a house husband for the next 8 years waiting for him to be pensionable; and besides I would have been 73 by the time we would be free to do and go where we wanted, and I may be too tired by then. Also I had enough pension coming in to allow him to retire.With some coaxing he saw my plan made sense. (Grin) In reality, after going through my bout with cancer etc, we both had come to realize just how fragile life really was. Our plans were to go south a minimum of 5 years and use one of my pensions to pay the extra expenses. (Unfortunately, the value of the Canadian dollar dropped so low over that period, we only got 4 years out of the fund before it ran dry. Believe me though, it was worth every penny.) I actually did retire on my birthday, and Ron retired the next day. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Our retirement parties were completely different. Mine was nice but put on by my company so there was no way I could camp it up. I had planned to 'come out' to them that night, but thought better of it when the time came. They were all so genuinely friendly and had presented me with a computer with programs already down loaded, plus two expensive pictures I had picked for my office (but they paid for them) when I was promoted to Controller. They had also invited my kids and their spouses which was a nice surprise. The next day was 29 Jan 95 - my 65th birthday and my official retirement. Ron on the other hand, as I had mentioned previously, worked as display designer at The Bay Department Store where most of the men were gay.They invited me to his party to say a few words. He was such good friends with them, that many of them gave seperate gifts, and they also gave him $500.00 to buy a white miniature poodle as Ron kept saying that that was all he wanted when he quit work. |
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| An Old Dog trying to learn new tricks. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Holly's first Christmas | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| My kids had put together to buy us a set of personalized license plates for our retirement. They read-- "2ROQ" They were quick to tell us. it meant "Two Retired Old Queens". (This also explains my code name "ROQ" that I use in message boards , Chats etc.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The first thing we had to do, was move from our apartment to our house at the lake by the end of January. I can't tell you how happy we were to finally call our dream house 'Home'. We soon got initiated into winter at the lake however, because, the day we moved, the area was hit with a bad snow storm. Once we were settled in, we picked up our baby "Holly" and took off for the sunny south on Feb 15. |
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| Ron clearing the deck before the movers arrived. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| We were lucky that Holly loved the car and is a wonderful traveller. because we went the long way to FortLauderdale. We were 2 weeks on the road. We went via Windsor , Detroit, Indianapolis, St Louis, Branson, Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville. Birmingham, Atlanta, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Orlando and finally Fort Lauderdale. We stayed in gay accommodations where possible and of course, I had done my homework and knew the addresses of gay clubs and bars in every city we stayed in. It was an amazing trip and one that we will never forget. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Ron and his Baby | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| HOME | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HAVE YOU LEFT A MESSAGE YET? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Later 90's | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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