Retirement: A New Era

Retirement has long been a dream. I never thought we would live this long, but here we are, and we are not as old as I always expected we would be. There is so much more to do and this is just the beginning... 

 



Celebrations and Gifts

 



All together in the Duke Mansion: Diana, Ruth, Traylor, Caroline, and Clara at
The Carolinas Healthcare System Retirement Celebration of Traylor
 Dec. 6 2012 at the Duke Mansion in Charlotte.
 




Michael Tarwater, Traylor, and Deborah Plousha Moore at the Retirement Party in the Duke Mansion, Charlotte
A toast: Here's to a job well-done.



 

 

 

First Day

January 2013 finally came and suddenly every day is a holiday. After saying for years, "I'll try that when I retire," and "I'll work on that when I retire," the time has come. First thing, he is learning to use his new i-pad to plan the next year of his life.

 



 

He's been planning for retirement since he was 28. Now, after a forty-year career in education, banking operations and human resources, helping thousands of others plan for their financial futures, for him the future has finally come. And though the economy has let us down in a lot of ways, he is as ready as anyone could be.

 

Now, planning can begin in earnest: a trip to Alabama to visit family, reunions of family and friends, a trip to California, to the wine country; a trip to France; a trip to Scotland. (There will also be short trips to Charlotte when he needs to get back to the faster pace of city-living. And LOTS of company.

It's Winter:

Football, Fires, Friends, Family, Food

For how many years now have bowl games in January been on work nights? Getting to work early was never compatible with staying up till midnight watching football. Now, that's an option. Hanging out with the dogs...

 

Bandit

Rudy

Celebrating sister Ruth's birthday on Jan. 2 instead of on New Year's Day, watching bowl games that last late into the night...Cooking your favorite foods and drinking wine every day. Well...almost.

 

 

 

But when cooking fine food is your favorite hobby, how much exercise will it take? Hey, any is better than none. Right?

 

 

 

Adjusting

 

 

So, this year, while the holidays are over, the vacation is not! The usual back-to-normal has been put off. We will get past this phase...after bowl season, when we get back from our trip, when the weather gets better...or will we? The anticipation is the best part.

  

 

Off they go...quick before the gardens grow!

  

Remember how it felt as a child when school was first let out for the summer? All those fun days ahead? Well, that's what makes this time so special: It's just the beginning with hope and anticipation all around.

Red Fox in the Snow



The following is a story I imagined from this painting of a peaceful small village in the South of France after a rare snow. The painting is the creative work of Jane Johnson of West Jefferson, NC. We collaborated for an art exhibit called, "More than Words," at the Ashe Arts Center in September, 2012.



Painting by Jane Johnson of West Jefferson, NC

Red Fox in the Snow

Life changes and changes live. The frolicking vixen becomes a mother with five kits to feed. Call me Red. You know me.

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Just last week in the South of France, the weather was dry, warm and luxurious, but this week brought the unexpected snow. Only yesterday, Lady Jeanne of the House worked outdoors gathering sticks and hauling off debris. One moment she worked under a bright blue sky as a light wind spread a fresh cool. The wind grew strong though and whipped the creaky trees. It howled louder by the hour with dark clouds building, and when it finally stopped, we were surrounded by a silent leaden stillness.

The snow started at nightfall, and by morning, we had a white new world. It has been such fun for my kittens, so new! I can hear the scratching of a mouse under the blanket right in front of me, a hardier kind of food for the family waiting now in the cold den. As this day ends and night returns, I will deliver the fresh meat and then return in cover of dark for the pomegranate.

My life has been a short eight years. Lady Jeanne is ninety but she may have more years left than I do. I am not afraid of her. She watches me through the window and sometimes leaves morsels on her doorstep like my favorite melon and tips of squashes and eggplant. I don’t think she minds sharing her pomegranates. It is a good thing because there is no camouflaging myself in this snow.

During spring and summer, I foraged for flowers that bloomed on the shrubs and the fruits that came after. Those were tasty, but since the apples of autumn, finding fruit is much harder. The long-lasting pomegranate here is a lucky find. The fruit remains on the branches into winter, drying and hardening, but inside there are juicy seeds with a lingering tang of late summer. Lady Jeanne knows I take one now and then. You can bet I’ve marked my territory.

The seasons affect changes within the pond too. Fish are delicious but hard to catch except in summer when the water is warm and minnows swim close to the bank. It is easier to catch frogs and big-eyed grasshoppers. Lizards and small snakes have completely disappeared in the cold.

How well the trees dress for the seasons. In spring they wear pastel pink buds and chartreuse leaves, and then for summer they change into deep verdant greens. By fall, they’re all wearing madras! In winter, a time when they bare most of their bark, ours are cloaked in mistletoe. Others don only a pearly broach of it. Today, they all wear robes of snow.

Weather is not too hard on the structures here, though there is some wearing of stone, rusting of metal and warping of wood over time. Lady Jeanne has seen more of that than I will ever see. She stores potatoes and carrots in a root cellar, and she is a foxy lady. I can’t dig into it. The walls are too thick.

Soon after the ides of winter, a funny little boy comes to visit Lady Jeanne. Any day, he will arrive again with the others, and then I will bring all my kits and we will watch them in the warm house through the windows. Their gifts will be more than food, but late at night, I expect there will be delicious morsels we have never tasted left for us on the doorstep. For this it is hard to wait.

 Diana Renfro, 2012

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