Hi everyone,
My mom has been retired for about 7 months now. She is in her early sixties and, in the past few years, she has had several bouts of illnesses that forced her to retire earlier than she would have liked. Since those illnesses were thought to be related to her high stress level at work, she decided that it would be much better for her health and sanity to retire.
The first few months of retirement were good. It was like a big vacation. But in the past few weeks, she has started to sound depressed. She feels lonely and irrelevant. My parents have been divorced for 20 years and while my dad moved on, my mom never got over it. She lives alone, has very few friends, does not participate to any social activities outside familial affairs, and though she would like to meet new people (friends or SO) she seems scared to test the waters (she is quite shy). Her two older sisters, to whom she is very close, live right around the corner from her. They both have been retired for many years and have grown accustomed to doing things together (traveling, going to the movies, walking). Now that my mom is also retired, she would like to be included but it's not happening for whatever reason.
My sister and I try to make sure we include my mom as much as we can (I call her several times a week and visit as often as I can and she sees or talks to my sister almost everyday), but it doesn't seem to be enough. We feel like she has to get out there and make a life for herself, meet people, make friends, volunteer, join a traveling or a hiking group, do something proactive instead of waiting for other people to come to her. She is still young and mostly healthy and if she only could break out of her shell I feel like her life could be much happier.
In the mean time, she returned to work part time to help fill her days with meaningful work (same stressful job she quit last year). She is not really happy about it but at least she doesn't feel lonely all day.
What would you suggest we do to help her enjoy her retirement?
My mom has been retired for about 7 months now. She is in her early sixties and, in the past few years, she has had several bouts of illnesses that forced her to retire earlier than she would have liked. Since those illnesses were thought to be related to her high stress level at work, she decided that it would be much better for her health and sanity to retire.
The first few months of retirement were good. It was like a big vacation. But in the past few weeks, she has started to sound depressed. She feels lonely and irrelevant. My parents have been divorced for 20 years and while my dad moved on, my mom never got over it. She lives alone, has very few friends, does not participate to any social activities outside familial affairs, and though she would like to meet new people (friends or SO) she seems scared to test the waters (she is quite shy). Her two older sisters, to whom she is very close, live right around the corner from her. They both have been retired for many years and have grown accustomed to doing things together (traveling, going to the movies, walking). Now that my mom is also retired, she would like to be included but it's not happening for whatever reason.
My sister and I try to make sure we include my mom as much as we can (I call her several times a week and visit as often as I can and she sees or talks to my sister almost everyday), but it doesn't seem to be enough. We feel like she has to get out there and make a life for herself, meet people, make friends, volunteer, join a traveling or a hiking group, do something proactive instead of waiting for other people to come to her. She is still young and mostly healthy and if she only could break out of her shell I feel like her life could be much happier.
In the mean time, she returned to work part time to help fill her days with meaningful work (same stressful job she quit last year). She is not really happy about it but at least she doesn't feel lonely all day.
What would you suggest we do to help her enjoy her retirement?