Tidbits from Retired Life in Florida (thanks to my mother)

• Some men surprise everyone with how caring they are to their spouses. After a lifetime of being the typical taditional-style couple with the husband working long hours at the office and the wife at home seeing to his comforts, in older age and with his spouse’s illness this man has become the caregiver and worrier, seeking to ease his wife through this part of life. Maybe the role he played before didn’t let him express what was always within.

• An 80-something women has recently married a 90-something man. My mother is prudish enough to wish she hadn’t overheard this conversation, but not so prudish that she didn’t convey it to me: the woman said to a friend on the golf course that now, now she is having the best sex she ever had. Pause for thought, imagery, and surely a smile to know that life does go on, in all its aspects.

• The control freaks that you try to get away from at work do not change when they retire to the golf courses and tennis courts of Florida. No, they volunteer to help manage things and then turn on the very people who lazily let them rise to the top of the retiree community ladder. You may retire from work, but not your personality, which means that you can’t escape from the personalities that bugged you, they just have more leisure time to annoy you.

• Take-out is king when dining out. Styrofoam containers are a key part of any restaurant meal. It doesn’t matter how hungry you are, you will take enough food home for a meal tomorrow. Is it because people who don’t like to cook continue to not like cooking? Or is it to stretch the retiree dollar? Or maybe it’s to give yourself more time to do the things you like and less the things you don’t like—finally. 

Comments

[she]

The sex one is funny! My grandfather remarried when he was in his late 80s and the woman was in her 70s. She left him the first time he tried to have sex with her! It was a brief marriage -- like two weeks.

And the one about the control freaks -- too bad they can't ever relax and let things BE.

[Christine]

The control freaks don't change when they leave the workforce to have babies either. They try to boss the other moms and kids on the playgrounds and overload their children with activities. It's tragic.

[prefers her fantasy life]

My aunt always makes sure she and my uncle take home half of what they eat. The waitresses know to bring her the take out boxes when they serve the meal, and before my uncle can dig in, my aunt divides it in half and packages it up.

[JC]

The takeout got me too. My mother-in-law either splits every meal with her friend at a restaurant or takes half home. Every time.

[Laura of Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman]

she, what a marriage. Did she think it would be platonic? With all of the women he probably had to choose from, he picked her. Oh well.

Christine, so true. Why can't they just control themselves and leave the rest of us type B and C-ers alone.

prefers her fantasy life, why can't she take care of her box and leave him alone?

JC, living on those retirement pensions must be tough, but it's so hard to never let yourself splurge too much.