Chapter 3: RETIRE? BUT YOU ARE TOO YOUNG! ARE YOU SURE??

My decision was made. That was the easy part.  Now I had to tell my boss and the CEO about my plan. I worried about when, and how to do this, but eventually decided to just forge ahead.  They were pretty much flabbergasted, and asked me several times if I was sure I really wanted to do this, and if I could just wait a few months and see what was to come with the buyout. Nope, my mind was made up and I was already making plans for my new life!

I didn't want a big fuss, but knowing 'the gang' I worked with there was no way to avoid it.  I got a lot of kidding about retiring, that it was for 'old people' and I wasn't old enough.  Yeah, right.  You should live a month in my body...   I was given 'the royal treatment', by coworkers tricking me into meeting them at Mi Rancho for drinks and dinner (and nice gifts, gang!).  I was honored at a reception given by the hospital where many employees came by to give me good wishes, and lovely parting gifts that will always warm my heart.  I had to make a 'speech', and told my little story about my first day and being told there was no team there, but that this person was very wrong!  There is a strong sense of being part of a team, and not just from the department I was assigned to but with people from every department, and that I had been very blessed by working at BCH.  I was later told I bawled like a baby, but I think that was an exaggeration, Tricia ;-)   A dear friend had me and some close friends for a home-cooked meal that was very special, in honor of my retirement.  I received flowers, plants, cards, hugs, and wonderful gifts.  But that's not why I retired....I wanted to be free, free to visit family, to go out of town for grandkids school events, to spend time fishing with my aging Daddy while he was still able, and not have to budget my vacation days to have time with family at holidays and in the summer yet still save enough to be sick, because as good as they are, BCH has a really lousy 'sick time' policy and me having asthma now meant several bouts of bronchitis or even pneumonia every year!

It took a while to sink in, that I was not just on vacation and would not have to return in a few days.  I was making grand plans for my summer-long celebration, and there was much to do to prepare myself and my home for all the time I would be away.