Wow, Girlfriend, you really are a gem. I can imagine what it's like there at Ford. Don's father retired from Ford in Detroit, and his mother worked at Packard. (How many folks here even know what "Packard" is, eh?)
Okay, Girlfriend, I'm gonna lay it out for ya like it really is. Ya ready? Hold onto yer hat....
Like you, I worked for over 40 years, non-stop. Not for the same company, certainly, but nevertheless, it was constant. Same with my hubby. We looked forward to retirement so we could row whenever we wanted, and we planned to do some coaching (hubby has his U.S.Rowing Assoc. coaching certificate). We talked with several folks who had retired and got the "low down," so we knew to get ourselves prepared by having something to fall back on work-wise, to occupy ourselves (such as the coaching and my stained glass).
Girl, I'm here to tell ya, it wasn't enough. Both Don and I went into Retirement Withdrawals like you would not believe. Had I not moved up here from California, I would definitely have begged for my old job back. The law firm did send me tapes to transcribe for them (medical record summaries), and I thanked God for it, because I would have gone crazy without the work. Don couldn't stand it and finally found a part-time job, which he kept for several years.
The problem is that we were so used to being NEEDED, having people DEPEND ON US, then after retiring, that all stopped of course, and our feeling of self-worth plummeted, going into times of depression, and at one point Don said to me, "I feel like I'm just sitting around waiting for the Grim Reaper!" Last year, he refused his own birthday as well as Christmas. We had no Christmas last year. Can you imagine? It sucked.
It's taken a lot of work to pull ourselves out of the funk, especially Don, because he's 10 years older than I.
And then we met Virginia, our kayaking buddy who just retired 4 months ago. She is just now starting to go through all the same symptoms and is turning to us for support. So it's not just us, and in fact we have discovered that the more professional the person was before retiring, the more difficult it is for them afterwards. I have tried to warn my brother, who was second in command at NASA until he "retired" and went to work for yet ANOTHER big company. He plans to retire fully in 3 years, but he has no concept of the severity of the withdrawals he is going to face. The Space Program was and always has been his entire life. He is going to be faced with severe depression, and unfortunately he won't listen to his little sister; after all, what could she possibly know, she didn't even graduate from college! (You get the picture.)
Girlfriend, plan ahead NOW; try to find something you can do professionally but part-time in the field of accounting or bookkeeping, perhaps working out of your home, perhaps doing the books for folks who work out of their home as well -- SOMETHING professionally, but only part-time, to help you ease into full retirement.
Now, having said all that, I can honestly tell you I would never go back to work again. I still have my moments of depression, but who doesn't? The one thing I know that you have that is going to help you is your bond with all the folks in your office. If you can keep those after they all leave the company, it'll help you a lot. When I moved up here, I lost all those ties and have had to try to find them here. It's not easy to find when you're not working around a lot of people.
Sorry this is so long. But I can't stress enough the importance of what I've told you. Anyone who has worked for a real long time and then retired will agree with me, I'm sure.
{{{{{{Hugs}}}}}}
Bevvy
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<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~letsrow/smily3481.gif">Bevvy
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Retirement For Shelby? A Warning
