Disability Then Retirement

These are stories of people who had a Disability and Then Retired... not exactly what they intended, but that is Life!

Marge S from Kansas shares her story here:
I didn't have a huge adjustment to make to retirement. I expected to retire one year later than I did. Fate intervened.

I broke my leg at the beginning of the school term, had a bad diagnosis from the ER, and tried to teach on a bad leg... To make a long story short, retirement came without a lot of notice. After a couple of other attempts to go the distance in the old school building, the doctor said, "Don't you have a lot of sick days stored up?'' I did. He said, "Take them."

At first retirement just seemed like another school vacation. I didn't exactly feel free to do anything right at first except to let the leg heal. By then it seemed natural to get up, sit and read the newspaper, sip a couple of cups of coffee, and begin the day leisurely. It was a delightful period of my life really.

I really knew I'd arrived when the first snow storm came along, and I didn't have to get out the car and make the 15 mile commute on slick streets or face the snarled up traffic on the interstate.

Life goes on after retirement. Sometimes we need to have that time to sit back and smell the roses. I was a sort of Type A person, and I think maybe that broken leg was a God send to show me I was not irreplaceable.

When I first started teaching, I thought I would do it even if I didn't get paid. I also thought I might be one of those old dinosaur teachers who hung in till mandatory retirement age of 70. Now I am glad I have a nice pension and didn't hang around that long.