This is pretty much the worst case

I know about the company and have used its products. Did not know about this man, who is a good manager according to the article.

Well, it happens to the best people.
 
A man I worked with dropped over at his desk two weeks before his 65th birthday, and that was a reminder that life is too precious to be spent working.
 
Yup, that's why we retired early. We figured we had enough money for a modest retirement, but we were quickly running out of life.
 
I wonder if some of these people were type A's and the thought of retirement was too stressful for them?

I heard of an IBM exec who was forced to retire at age 65 (this was decades ago.). On his last day of work he dropped dead in the parking lot before reaching his car.
 
Nightcap said:
We figured we had enough money for a modest retirement, but we were quickly running out of life.
Click to expand...

Good one! I'm going to plagiarize that quote.

I still haven't come to grips yet with what happened to a long-time (30+ years) co-worker. He and I had been in the same department most of that time, although different groups. We've been through just about every stage of life and career together, albeit somewhat at arm's length.

I first met his extended family at his retirement party a week before his last day. Great people. He and his wife were going on a cruise, starting on his last official day of w*rk.

He passed away the second day of his vacation, snorkeling. No more details, but it appears to have been a sudden medical issue. That was his first official day of retirement.

Months later, I'm still in shock. I don't even know what lessons I'm supposed to take away from that story.
 
Nightcap said:
Yup, that's why we retired early. We figured we had enough money for a modest retirement, but we were quickly running out of life.
Click to expand...

Pretty well sums it up for me as well.

I walked away from a lot... peak earnings, bonuses, unvested options/RSUs, and a pension bump at 55. But the job had become an all-consuming, unhealthy amalgam of constant travel, insane hours, toxic politics, and almost none of the sense of pride and accomplishment from earlier years.

So, I don't have as much money as my coworker peers, most of whom are still going like the energizer bunny. But I'm now healthy, happy, and I have a life, with the freedom to do whatever I want when I wake up every day. Coming up on 5 years of living the dream.
 
A coworker, 55, had started talking about retirement. He had plenty of outside interests and had long hated his office (though not his job). Then, he got a promotion, a new office, congenial management...and OMY set in.

So he went on vacation, where he died in his sleep. Some sort of undiagnosed, silent heart condition.

On the one hand, he died happy, and will not have to endure getting old. On the other...he never got to retire. Which is more important, I wonder?
 
DH died last year, one week before what we had been planning to be his/our retirement or semi-retirement date, depending on how Megacorp reacted. He had been diagnosed with cancer nine months earlier.

He was 55, and I'm 51, and we had taken all manner of lessons from friends and family who died way too young--we had amassed our nest egg, spent hours upon hours plotting our path, and were ready to start enjoying it. And we still didn't do it soon enough.

Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.
 
So sorry; there are no words for such tragedy. Peace.

googily said:
DH died last year, one week before what we had been planning to be his/our retirement or semi-retirement date, depending on how Megacorp reacted. He had been diagnosed with cancer nine months earlier.

He was 55, and I'm 51, and we had taken all manner of lessons from friends and family who died way too young--we had amassed our nest egg, spent hours upon hours plotting our path, and were ready to start enjoying it. And we still didn't do it soon enough.

Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.
Click to expand...
 
googily said:
DH died last year, one week before what we had been planning to be his/our retirement or semi-retirement date, depending on how Megacorp reacted. He had been diagnosed with cancer nine months earlier.
Click to expand...

I am sorry for your loss. Sometimes we do all the right stuff and things still don't work out well. This happened to a friend of mine whose wife died early and unexpectedly. He once told me that he honors her by living well, and at the end of the day, he makes sure to give thanks she was in his life.
 
Thanks, all. DH was astonishingly accepting of it. We had been so very grateful about our good fortune even before he got sick--and he said many times after he got sick he wouldn't trade his life (even the ending) for the unknown of the future.

And I still know how incredibly lucky I was to have had the time I did with him.

But this is why you'll often find me in threads advocating against OMY. :)
 
I've seen several 50-ish age neighbors die. Like you're chatting about their green grass one day then after several weeks you don't see them and hear from another neighbor that they had a massive stroke/heart attack/aggressive cancer and they're dead. Boom lights out. I'd like to think if that's my fate at least I'll get to enjoy a decade or two of good living first and go out with no regrets!
 
googily said:
DH died last year, one week before what we had been planning to be his/our retirement or semi-retirement date, depending on how Megacorp reacted. He had been diagnosed with cancer nine months earlier.

He was 55, and I'm 51, and we had taken all manner of lessons from friends and family who died way too young--we had amassed our nest egg, spent hours upon hours plotting our path, and were ready to start enjoying it. And we still didn't do it soon enough.

Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.
Click to expand...

I have no other words but I'm so sorry. I wish you the best in the future.
 
FUEGO said:
I've seen several 50-ish age neighbors die. Like you're chatting about their green grass one day then after several weeks you don't see them and hear from another neighbor that they had a massive stroke/heart attack/aggressive cancer and they're dead. Boom lights out.
Click to expand...

About a decade ago I went through a period of 5 years where friends and family were dropping right and left. I lost an aged parent, my younger sibling (only 56), three very good friends, and two more friends got so sick their lives changed forever.

I remember walking down the street, looking over my shoulder and wondering when I would be struck down. Thankfully that never happened, and my friends and relatives stopped passing to soon. But, it definitely motivated me to quit work early.

One of my favorite cartoons from this forum:
 
Last edited:
Chuckanut said:
About a decade ago I went through a period of 5 years where friends and family were dropping right and left. I lost an aged parent, my younger sibling (only 56), three very good friends, and two more friends got so sick their lives changed forever.
Click to expand...

I take my motivation from another neighbor. She's 80. At least once or twice per week when I'm walking the kiddo to school at 7:45 am she's outside working in the yard, mowing grass, or climbing on the roof to blow it off and clean out the gutters. I can barely wake up and get out the door by 7:45 and here she is almost done with her yardwork by that time (and she's 43 years my senior!).
 
googily said:
DH died last year, one week before what we had been planning to be his/our retirement or semi-retirement date, depending on how Megacorp reacted. He had been diagnosed with cancer nine months earlier....
Click to expand...

So so sorry. 😢
 
No one knows how much time they have on this earth. That is why everyone needs to stop and grab as much gusto out of life as early as possible.
 
Today I found out a person I worked with fairly closely (I retired last June) dropped dead on Jan 3. He was 58. Yikes. Then I found out that another of my HS class of 1971 died. That makes 25 out of 179 class of 1971 now deceased. That '..running out of life' quote from Nightcap really rings true today. And Googily, I'm very sorry for your loss.
 
I really disliked the last job I had before retirement. A woman in the next cubicle who was quite a bit younger than I was at the time (58) had lost her husband a few years before. She told me he had died from a heart attack at work. I'm sure that was a subconscious motivator to my decision to retire a short while later.

Sorry for your loss, Googily.
 
It's most important to be happy and have fun whatever that entails.
 
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