I keep reading these stories about people retiring early and dying soon after, can it really be that bad?! It is actually bugging me as I plan to pull the plug sometime late summer.
I hear that too, but I think in many cases, these people were already in failing health, and would have died whether they kept working or not.
Another one I've often heard is that when one spouse dies, the other usually goes within a year. In my limited personal experience though, that seems to be the exception rather than the rule. Now, here at work, about 20 years ago, I remember a husband and wife where that did hold true. However, the wife was very sick, and forced to retire. After she passed away, the husband was lonely and depressed, and shot himself. So yeah, he did die within a year of his wife's passing, but he did it himself...it's not like he just mentally gave up and his body shut down. He mentally gave up and took his own life.
My maternal grandmother just passed away on May 11, at the age of 91. However, Granddad passed away on April 25, 1990, so she made it another 25 years. As for their respective retirements, Granddad had retired at 55 in 1971, so he lasted 19 years (lung cancer). Grandmom "officially" retired in 1980 at the age of 56 when the gov't hospital she worked at shut down, and she was able to get a pension, but she worked off and on, out of the home, and doing part time/on call work at other hospitals, until 1994, when she turned 70. So I guess her "semi-retirement" was 13 years (it was late 1980 and early 1994, respectively, so I'm rounding, rather than doing sloppy math). And her "full" retirement was 21 years (1994-2015). Grandmom and Granddad got married in 1946, so they were together 43 years.
On my Dad's side, Grandmom died in 1994, at the age of 73. Granddad is still kicking, at 100, but I don't think he's going to last much longer. His body actually looks pretty good for his age, but his mind is going fast. So in their case, he's gone on 21 years without her. As for their retirement, they both went out in 1974, when Granddad turned 60 and retired from the Pennsylvania Railroad. Grandmom worked in the office at another railroad called "Fruit Grower's" or something like that. Grandmom would've only been around 53, but might have put in enough time to get some kind of pension. Or maybe Granddad's was good enough that they could just make it on only one? So anyway, their retirement together lasted another 20 years. And then Granddad's lasted almost another 21 beyond that!
Oh yeah, while we were at the cemetery this past Saturday, I noticed the site of my grandmother's (back to the Mom's side) Uncle Luther and Aunt Carrie. Uncle Luther was 1889-1960, so he made it to 70/71, and Aunt Carrie was 1886-1969, so she made it to 82/83. I don't know much about their work history, except that Uncle Luther worked for the federal gov't as a carpenter. And he and Aunt Carrie also ran a little country store, starting in 1916. I don't know what year he retired, and nobody around here remembers when the store shut down. I've heard sometime in the 40's or maybe early 50's, at the latest. Uncle Luther sort of went crazy in his older age. And after he died, Aunt Carrie lived with Grandmom and Granddad.
Oh, one other data point. My grandmother's cousin, who turned 90 back in October. She retired from the federal gov't around 1980-81 around the age of 56 or so. She had divorced, back in the 1950's I think, so there was no husband However, she had a boyfriend (or "gentleman friend" I guess you'd call it at that age!) He had passed away in 2001 or so. I don't know how long they had been together, but it was before I was born, so at least 31 years, so I'm sure that loss would be as rough as losing a husband/wife. Still, here it is, 14 years later, and she's doing pretty well, for her age.
Anyway, sorry for all this rambling on, but I just wanted to paint a rosier picture, with examples of people who retired and didn't drop dead within a year or two! And, spouses who lived fairly long after the other had passed on.
