Age 78, still working, despite disability

by Bill W.

I continue to work full time. Because I remarried later in life and had an additional two children, the youngest is now eighteen. He is ready for college.

My social security and small pension would not be enough to cover all the expenses, and I don't want him having student loan burdens forever. My wife works, too, from home - her income is small. So I continue to work full time, although I am 78, but it keeps me going.

There's a reason to get up each day, in spite of the fact I am in a wheelchair due to spinal stenosis. A mobility bus picks me up each morning, takes me to my job, and brings me home each day. I'll keep going, because this keeps me going.

When I have a three day weekend due to a holiday, it gives me a taste of what full time retirement would be like, and I don't care for it. By the third day I am anxious to get back to work. Perhaps if we had lots of money and could live forever on a tropical beach, drinking pina coladas and frolicking in the waves, I might change my mind about continuing to work. But until that big lottery hit comes, I'll do what I've done my whole life - work.

Retirement may work for some, but I think I would get in my wife's way each day - we live in a small two bedroom apartment. Our kitchen is a hallway style kitchen; room for one. When I try to go in to fix something for myself I can tell she gets annoyed.

Full time at home? No way - I love my wife too much to do that to her!

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