For most of my life, work had been a constant. I had worked on farms. I had carried luggage as a bellhop. I had been a lifeguard. I had sung in clubs. I had repaired roads around the harbor. I had counseled prison inmates. I had managed an office. I had estimated pressure vessels, storage tanks, fences, chemical plants, and power plants. Then, after approximately thirty years with Dow Chemical Company, I retired as a Senior Project Estimator. The career that had begun almost accidentally was over.
When I first started learning how to estimate materials and labor at that little fabrication company, I could never have imagined where it would lead. Dow had given me a career. It had given me responsibility. It had given me opportunities to work on projects around the world. But eventually every career ends. And when mine did, I discovered something important. My job had never been my life. Trish was.
The Life We Had Built
Retirement gave Trish and me more time for the companionship we had built. I wanted her beside me, whether we were traveling, observing the Feast, or spending an ordinary day together. And after retirement, we had something that had been scarce during all those working years. Time. Time to be together. Time to travel. Time to enjoy the life we had built. But time does not always give. Sometimes it takes.