Uh-oh! #1

First chapter of "What, Me Retire?"   

(Covid-19 has forced many people to retire and, as expressed in their social media posts, home 24/7 is such a lonely place. Perhaps by sharing my own retirement story, they can find humor in their change of pace, and may even discover that retirement is a blessing in disguise.)                                                                                                         

Retire from a dream career? No way.    

Well, I upped and left—without packing my bags—never to return to that place where I did what I loved to do for over 25 years! I dared not look back, afraid I might, like Lot's wife, turn to salt. 

Not your typical retirement scene, is it?  It's more like a movie sequence. 

Company retirees are usually sent off with a ritual: speeches of accolades and gratitude; food and drinks; hugs and tears; a small parting gift (in an envelope), and a wild applause. I had mounted those rituals myself (with the help of my staff) for esteemed officemates who reached the retirement age and, by law, had to go.  

In contrast, here I was, ritual-bare, a 54-year-old ex-EVP, sitting alone like a petrified driftwood in the middle of the Dead Sea instead of the car that would take me home for good.

As the building that housed my advertising life grew smaller and smaller from the car's rear view mirror, I heard a grandiose music soundtrack swell to crescendo. Then when the building was out of sight, in sync with the last chord, the screen turned black and the words “The End” appeared. 

Tragic ending? Well, I lamented the fact that nobody would ever know whether I just left for coffee or took a spin around the block.  

* * * * *

Written in most of my books today: “Grace left the workplace to try new things.” New things mean everything outside of advertising, but primarily, they mean writing. Nothing new, really, as I might have begun writing in my mother's womb. I’ve been writing  letters, plays, nursery rhymes, greeting cards, speeches for aunties and grannies, among others. But along the way, my mind, not my heart, led me to other persuasions.   

Just a week after fleeing my place of work, I rekindled my dormant love for writing and took on where I left off. I seized writing with a focus so ferocious I pounded on my keyboard almost 24/7, more hours than any day I ever spent at work. I asked myself then, Retiring isn't so bad, is it? 

On the flip side, I knew I had to go through that made-only-in-movies dramatic exit to make me appreciate “new things.”  

Here now is a sneak peek of how the plot thickened for two years before it moved toward the scene when the screen turned black for “The End.”  

To be continued next post