How Many Know Someone Who Retired Then Became Seriously Ill Or Died?

[mountaintosea]

Co-worker of mine just retired two weeks ago then found out today that he is in the hospital with a blood clot in his lung! He's only about 58. I was just wondering how many people have known people who couldn't wait to retire and then do end up in the hospital or dead?!! It seems that it happens way too often!

[Caroline]

I have a friend whose father died the day BEFORE he retired. He was a logger. Tree fell on him.

[VoyT]

Co-worker of mine retired .. lots of plans to paint, fish, etc ... etc. 6 weeks later he died in his sleep of a massive heart attack. I suppose being a heavy smoker for many years helped to pull the trigger, but, gee ....

[kumquat]

Co-worker retired at 62. Lost a leg to diabetes within 6 months.

An uncle retired at 96, died in less than a year.

[Leonidas]

I know several unfortunately (stress kills cops - avg lifespan is 59).

One guy that I had worked with several times over the years never even made it to his first pension check. Age 55, filled out the paperwork to retire, got up the next morning and bought a new truck. Died of a heart attack on the way home.

But there are also a lot of guys that are my role models. Like the founder of our union, born 1924, patrolled a 100 mile long beat with the border patrol driving a model A Ford, retired when I was a freshman in high school and died just a couple of years ago after 30 years in retirement.

[chris2008]

I knew or heard about several people who died shortly (within one year) after retirement.
What should we conclude?
a) retire earlier
b) retire later
c) protect your health to enjoy an early and long retirement, in the meantime enjoy life and positive aspects of work.

[ladelfina]

I really wonder about this.. could it have something to do with the (proven, I believe) syndrome of longtime married couples where, when one spouse dies, the other is more likely to naturally follow soon thereafter?

http://focus.hms.harvard.edu/2006/02...lth_care.shtml
This is interesting...

Maybe work has a lot of "reason-for-living" components that we underestimate.

[lets-retire]

I had a Sgt who retired as soon as he could, so I'd guess he was about 55. He went out fishing with another retired Sgt and had a heart attack as he was throwing out his line. He didn't even receive his first retirement check.

[linkerbink]

Well...where do I start...?

My husband was using up his vacation days before retirement and was killed in a car accident. The only positive thing about that was that I was then eligible for his work life insurance (double indemnity) and I also get his pension for life.

My father-in-law couldn't wait to retire so he could play golf every day. He had just barely retired when he was hit by a taxi while crossing the street...he suffered a severe hip injury and was never able to play golf again. It was the taxi driver's fault, and the cab company came to him and gave him a generous settlement (they had no intention to sue), but that was small consolation for the loss of his retirement dream.

A fellow a the agency I just retired from had been retired for less than a year when he was diagnosed with bone cancer. He's getting treatment, but I understand that the average life expectancy after diagnosis is about five years...

[donheff]

People die all the time. We just focus on the irony if it happens soon after they retire. From a different perspective for some it may all be good. If you have happily gotten to the point that you can pull the plug and look forward to a life of fly fishing and then die peacefully in your sleep the next night it is kinda like the proverbial dream of "dying in the saddle." (That is an X-rated saddle, not w**k.)

[Nords]

My father ER'd to take care of my mother, who had been fighting metastasized breast cancer for nearly a decade. She died two days before his ER was official.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ladelfina I really wonder about this.. could it have something to do with the (proven, I believe) syndrome of longtime married couples where, when one spouse dies, the other is more likely to naturally follow soon thereafter?

I wonder how much of that is caused by some widowers of The Greatest Generation suddenly realizing that they'd have to cook, clean, and launder for themselves. Death might seem like a more attractive alternative!

[tryan]

My FIL retired at 65 ... 3 months later he died of an abdominal anuerism. YIKES!

[Caroline]

Quote:

...died just a couple of years ago after 30 years in retirement.

We had a thread a while back about the definition of "early" retirement. The above comment suggests a defintion to me:

"Early Retirement" occurs when one spends more years retired than one spent working."

[Khan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords My father ER'd to take care of my mother, who had been fighting metastasized breast cancer for nearly a decade. She died two days before his ER was official. I wonder how much of that is caused by some widowers of The Greatest Generation suddenly realizing that they'd have to cook, clean, and launder for themselves. Death might seem like a more attractive alternative!

I read somewhere that (for the above mentioned generation and traditional gender roles) when the man dies the woman's work load decreases by 50%, when the woman dies the man's workload increases by 90%.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris2008 I knew or heard about several people who died shortly (within one year) after retirement. What should we conclude? a) retire earlier b) retire later c) protect your health to enjoy an early and long retirement, in the meantime enjoy life and positive aspects of work.

I'll take 'c' and

d) realize that we actually know hundreds or thousands of people that retire, but the relatively few that kick off right after doing so stick in our heads because its such a tragedy.

The dual death thing is really interesting, although again in my experience its not the rule, just the well noted exception. My grandparents died within a year of each other, and the same happened with another distantly related couple. Seems like when one died the other just sat down and lost the will to live. But then again I know dozens of couples where one died and the other went out dancing a year later and kept on going.

[Moemg]

Well let's see my husband retired and we moved to florida to fulfill his dream .I'm here .He died one year after the move .

[windsurf]

My Dad would have had a decent retirement having worked all his life for a railroad. Some years, he worked so much ovetime he had more than four hundred and some working days in the year. Toward the end, just before he got his diagnosis,(he died six months after a lung Ca diagnosis at age 52), he was talking (quietly, only to my Mom) about seeing light at the end the tunnel to retire at 60-something with a quarter of a mil in the bank (stocks weren't part of his vocabulary: he died in '80). I remember him comparing himself to some of the other guys he worked with who were struggling with making ends meet. He said his secret to being able to put money in the bank was being able to walk by a store front and just look and then to keep on walking. Tne problem was when you went in and got snagged by the sales people. Remember store fronts? The old days, eh? Now, it's website popups. I "popup" once in awhile here with some attitudes about corporate greed. For me, my Dadis exhibit A as the Company Man who sacrificed his body and health so the scions of that railroad's fortune could sell their interest to Conrail and RE. An irony: early in my legal career, I had lots of railroad cases under the Federal Emplyers Liability Act (like workers comp) where I was opposed on behalf of the railroad to guys seeking big bucks for back injuries. I remembered my Dad literally falling out of bed and crawling across the floor to the bathroom before he could get his back loose enough to stand up and go to work. He was in his twenties. He started out flinging coal into steam locomotives in the late forties and, obviously, yoga and resistance exercises that would have prepped him for this unnatural repetitive exercise weren't part of the program.

[REWahoo]

We need to take a poll of everyone on the board who is retired:

How long did you live after retiring?

< 1 week
< 1 month
< 1 year
> 1 year

Where is Dan Tien when you really need him...

[cube_rat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leonidas I know several unfortunately (stress kills cops - avg lifespan is 59).

Yep! My stepdad retired with full pension as a SF cop at 60 years after 33 years with the police force. Died suddenly from a massive heart attack EXACTLY one year to the day of his retirement. The chronic drinking over the years didn't help.

[Goonie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris2008 I knew or heard about several people who died shortly (within one year) after retirement.

Over 50% of the guys my Dad w*rked with at the factory, died within the first 12 months of their retirement. Dad lasted 12 years past retirement. He died @ 74. (Mom, who is 2 years his junior, is VERY active and still going strong at 80!!!)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ladelfina I really wonder about this.. could it have something to do with the (proven, I believe) syndrome of longtime married couples where, when one spouse dies, the other is more likely to naturally follow soon thereafter?

Our former Mayor, who was a good friend of mine, died within 8 hours of the passing of his wife. She had had some health problems that finally led to her demise. He was reasonably healthy, and hadn't had any major health problems. The family said he had a heart attack that was possibly triggered by the stress of losing his wife of nearly 60 years, so quickly.

My Grandad's second wife passed away on the Wednesday before Good Friday in 1979 and was buried on Good Friday. Grandad passed away one year later...on the Wednesday before Good Friday in 1980 and was buried on Good Friday. He had had some minor health problems, and passed away quietly in his sleep that night. (His first wife, my Gramma, had passed away in 1967, of cancer.)