Retirement

Well today is the day.  Merril retires.  I guess it was ine…inevi…was bound to happen.
I am normally not date specific with what I post, as it allows me to post anything on any day.   I can pick a random day like, um, say January 15th.  How about that.  That is my birthday.  What are the chances.  But you probably already knew that was my birthday, as you would have circled on your calendar “Peter’s birthday.”  You also no doubt have a note on the 10th of January that says “remember to send Peter presents.”
This day is bitter/sweet.  Retirement is universally looked forward to.  I have never heard someone say “man, I wish I didn’t have to retire now.”  It probably happens, but I have never heard it.  It is the closing of one door, and the opening of another.
The fact it is looked forward to, does not take away from the sadness of seeing an era end.  In Merril’s case it is about 40 years of nursing.  What I find amazing is she is working in the same hospital she was born at.  Ok the old building has gone, and she works in a new one, but it really is only a matter of meters from where she was born.  She has worked in a number of Brisbane hospitals in her time, but this is where she will say good bye from for the last time.
Also, it is not like she is doing something that has never been done before.  People will not say to her “you are doing what?  That’s a first.”  It is probably a bit like with birthdays.  In my case the 15th of January.  There’s that date again.  They say that 12.5 million people share the same birthday.  When it comes to retiring, it would probably be tens of thousands each week.  But for me and Merril she is not a statistic, she is a person.
At least Merril has had the chance to pick her day to retire.  Me, (que a single violin playing sad music) when I went off to work, I did not know that would be my last day.  But is was.  For some reason it reminds me of something Bob Dylan sang, “The only thing we knew about Henry Porter, was that his name wasn’t Henry Porter.”
In time we all move on.  That does not stop us missing the people.  A shared experience is not easily dismissed.  I would say Merril will be a bit like me.  The job has been good, but it will be the people that are missed the most.
Still the past is the past and there is no going back.  Together we sure have things to look forward to.  We are heading to Melbourne at the end of March and the Sunshine Coast at the end of April.  There are hobbies she will have time for now.  I can drink coffee and watch her scrubbing and washing and dusting and cleaning and digging and drilling…and. 
Merril wants to have the first month after she retires, free of most commitments.  That is understandable after 40 years I reckon.  A lot of people have said can you do this, or this.  She has not said no to them all, but she has said not yet to them all.
I for one will be glad we can face the future together, but I will never pretend that saying good-bye is easy.