I am being retyred. My post paid work plans are to head to
What is retirement? We have transitions in life that are formally recognised, even celebrated. I remember my four year old graduating from pre-school and thinking really? We have transitions from primary to high school, graduations from year twelve and university all marked by symbolic events. Completing paid work after forty years for many is marked by a farewell gift, acknowledgement of services rendered and goodbye.
Retirement has its own jargon. We speak about ending paid work as “calling it quits”, “a golden handshake” which often is associated with redundancy, “going out to pasture,” “packing it in,” “being pensioned off” and “throwing in the towel.”
For the last nine years I have worked for Anglican Aid, an agency that connects donors from churches in Australia where we enjoy an abundance and the developing world in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East and Pacific, where money can make a huge difference in poverty alleviation. During nine years I formed hundreds of relationships both in Australia and overseas, many whom I have met personally. I have visited 21 countries and developed relationships with many amazing people, especially where oppressive cultures made life difficult for so many. So in the lead up to finishing at Anglican Aid I sent emails to many people overseas to let them know of my departure and wish them well. I received many acknowledgements and well wishes. The standout came from an 80 year old Zambian, Rosemary who in her email wished me well but added:
“People like you do not retire but Retyre – just put on new tyres.”
Rosemary, who sent me this pearl is 80 years old. She runs a school in northern Zambia. Now an 80 year old woman running a school for 600 kids is unusual enough, but this school was started by her after she retired as a Regional Director of Education!
The background to this is retirement, a husband dying within a year of retirement and all her assets as a middle class woman being confiscated by her husband’s family (its a cultural thing). Finding herself in a slum in Lusaka she saw kids not going to school and commenced teaching two kids with limited resources. The rest is history, the school being tweny years old has been supported by many in her wide network from the United Kingdom and more recently Australia. We met Rosemary through her son in Australia, concerned that his mother had this huge responsibility and he was concerned that she was ageing and needed help. When I met her in 2016, I was surprised at the network around her which included a board comprising the elite of Zambian civil society including judges and others. She didn’t appear to be slowing down or ready to slow down.
And so to the two photos above. Pino coladas and living the good life after a life of work.
The two tyres one which I had replaced last week. One still looks good and still has a lot of tread in the middle but was wearing on the edges so was replaced because technically it was not roadworthy. The one on the right totally worn out out. Driven by a 19 year old who did “burn outs.” They are a bit like us. Perhaps the totally burned out tyre is at the end of its useful life and so eating, drinking and waiting for death may not be unreasonable. However completing paid work does not mean we are at the end of a productive life.
Most people completing work today are generally in good health, can expect to live maybe twenty years and have lots of time. No longer working full time provides lots of options. Maybe a bit worn out but still plenty of life left. I will discuss some of these next time. Others, maybe due to the type of work, health issues or other circumstances sigh with relief when they can complete work and look forward to a retirement that may allow restoration of physical health and strength and allow time for activities that have been subjugated due to work commitments.
So in Rosemary’s words,I am being retyred. My post paid work plans are to head to Tanzania where I will be assisting Bishop George from the Anglican Church of Tanzania in Mara Diocese, near Lake Victoria. My initial visit will see me overseas for six months from early April till October. A holiday in Europe will break that time for about six weeks and then back to Africa.
Next time I will discuss more about the concept of why retirement should see relatively young and fit retirees being retyred.
Banality – “being banal” means so lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring. Hannah Arendt wrote a book “The Banality of Evil” in which she hypothesised that the extermination of Jews by the Nazis was just something ordinary that they did, not out of evil intentions but as part of a group following directions. Nazism was totally eveil but many drifted into it thoughtlessl and with motives other than idealistic Nazism. No other way to explain the ruthless genocide of a people. The people of Israel resented her understanding of this evil as she followed Eichmann’s trial in person and concluded this was just an ordinary guy along with millions of other Germans doing an ordinary job.
Have you ever considered the humble toilet seat? Well it is not something that comes to mind very often. We take it for granted. But when it malfunctions then you realise (well we in the well toiletted developed world at least) its importance. Well it isn’t really important except to those who prefer the comfort of a toilet seat of any material, to the cold hard discomfort of porcelain (assuming you are not using a thunder box). Three weeks ago my toilet seat needed replacing. So down to the plumbing shop, toilet seat in hand I went not realising that I was entering another world which tells me how unprepared the ordinary person with no practical experience of home maintenance is when it comes to replacing a toilet seat.
I wasn’t aware that I had to replace the plugs to fit the new seat!
Well said the expert man in the shop who looked at my toilet seat to tell me that they don’t make my toilet seat any more. Really? It was only nine years old. But he shows me a slimline model which approximates my toilet seat but looks like the sports model, not the chunky EH version that mine is equivalent to in the motoring world. I felt no embarrassment in asking “How do I change it?” With a practical display off I went, confident this was one new skill easily mastered and saving on the cost of a toilet seat tradesman to come and do the deed.
I felt very proud of myself as I stepped back with I must admit a certain degree of pride at my huge accomplishment in changing one toilet seat. Possibly a one off experience in my whole life. However …. after three weeks it was apparent that something was amiss. Said new toilet seat refused to stay still and would unhinge regularly, causing some slight inconvenience. Lucky we had no seated guests during that time.
So back to the toilet seat shop where I met up like an old friend of the owner and explained my predicament. Maybe there was a fault with said purchase I proffered. “Did you replace the steel bolts as well” he asked? My blank expression, was followed by I didn’t know that was part of the job. They should have been in the box when you unpacked it said toilet seat expert making me feel like I wanted to be flushed away. I am starting to feel somewhat embarrassed when he turns around to his cupboard and grabs a plastic bag with said bolts and tells me this is what is needed to keep the seat hinged. After carefully explaining how I thread the bolt into the nut to holding it in place, I leave the shop, feeling like a student who has failed the most basic task.
So much for a sense of achievement as a newly retired person who wholeheartedly threw his all into learning a new task only to fail miserably. I think I failed a very banal task.
In photos and text I comment on my year month by month.
In a previous blog I reflected on the challenges that 2021 posed. It was indeed the hardest year of my life. It seems a confluence of activities formed that pcaused incredible pressure. None of the issues themselves would normally have been difficult. When combined together however it was huge pressure and not one of them identifably significant. How did I cope? Only God knows.
In photos and text I comment on my year month by month.
January saw us returning to Sydney after spending most of December and January at Bangalow. Christmas saw us and our daughter at Bangalow at our son’s house while he, his wife and grandson #4 were in hospital following a bone marrow transfusion (BMT). Maintaining their house and Christmas with our three other kids and four other grandsons was a pleasant time. Byron Bay is only 10 minutes so the beach and lighthouse were visited regularly. As we were allowed we visited Brisbane and had coffee with our son.
BMT requires the recipient to be isolated in a hospital room for months. His parents rotated between themsleves to be in the room 24/7. How grandson#5 coped for three months is beyond me.
26 January, I left for Sydney and work accompanied by their dog who was spending the time before they returned.
January started with a drive from Bangalow to Sydney to transfer my son’s dog for foster care while they were in Brisbane with our grandson
February was a fairly normal month. Work, a work conference but the additional responsibility was as a nominator for the replacement of our senior minister at church. This task entailed headhunting Anglican Ministers our group of 5 thought may be suitable. It turned out to be a massive job. There was a night at the theatre in Wollongong and a staff conference at the Wollongong Surf Leisure Resort. I did the BBQ. We had German visitors who stayed a weekend with us. Hannah and Ina were Bible College students who I met through extended family. Hannah is from near Frankfurt where my mother came from. A weekend with visitors allowed us to visit the Southern Highlands and Illawarra.
I also completed an exam in the PTC course Early Church History. Only 83% but there was a lot in it.
We had German visitors stay a weekend. After a year of COVID disruption it was good to meet international visitors
As in February, it was good to be catching the train to work. There was some normaility even though the trains were empty. COVID has certainly changed people’s preparedness to work physically onsite. Our office barely had more than a few people coming in from January to March. Zoom was the order of the day.
March saw me continuing to travel to work. Working from home there were days where I did not leave home, not even for a walk. I forgot to go out, unlike 2020 when methodically I would wlk to the beach for time out at lunchtime.
Walking and podcasts were the two new activities I started during COVID. I also started the Moore College Preliminary Theologcal Certificate in August 2020.
The Archbishop retired this month so there was a farewell at work for him. Also a service at St Andrews Cathedral on 26 March to farewell him. Two days later I preached at Fairfield Anglican Church. This has a bit of history as my father’s funeral was taken by the then minister of this church in 1970 when I was 15yo. There were people who still remembered him. I remembered him as a very kind man who came and visited us in our grief. I have never forgotten that time he spent with our family.
At the farewell for Archbishop Davies I had the opportunity to have a photo with Kanishka Raffel who in May was elected as the new Archbishop
April 1 saw us attend Hamilton after seeing it in London in 2019. It was possibly better than the London show. We stayed in Sydney overnight on the road north to Bangalow.
Back in Brisbane in to see our grandson for his 5th birthday. We managed to get across the closed border with a clown suit to try and cheer him up. Sadly he was frightened of me.
The rest of April was pretty much routine with going work, studying the PTC and enjoying freedoms post COVID. Church work now as a warden in addition to being a nominator added to my already busy year.
OK not the funniest and maybe a bit scary
May was a huge month. Grandson#5 ended up with complications from his BMT after coming home earlier in the month. He and his parents had been in Brisbane since August 2020 so nine long months in Brisbane and then only two weekends at home before he was back in hospital.
The rest of May included my graduation in 1st year PTC and an election synod where I awas able to vote for the new Archbishop. A great privilege. Our youngest daughter announced her engagement and I was actually asked by her beau if he could marry her. They are a great match. Linda had a significant birthday which was celebrated with a small group of close friends a tthe Kirribilli Club.
I graduated year one of the PTC at Moore College in MayMy wife celebrated a significant birthday in May
June was a busy month. A trip to Brisbane for a week where I was able to help by sleeping overnight at the hospital and give sgrandson#4’s parents a night off.
I went to see Hamilton again. I am addicted.
Our youngest daughter was married on 19 June, a week before the lockdown. Dorrigo was freezing but it was a superb location and a beautiful wedding. Afterwards we had a holiday near Byron which had been booked months prior and were unable to get a refund..
The hospital sleepover with my grandsonA wedding in Dorrigo on a crisp cold day
NSW went into lockdown while we were on holidays at Byron. We arranged with my son to remain at their home in Bangalow looking after it till they were able to return. It turned out they could not come home till January 2022 so I worked from Bangalow. No one and I mean no one came to our office till late October. Lockdown 2021 was tougher than 2020 but in Bangalow apart from six weeks we had relative freedom.
The George Gregan Foundation built the outside playground at Brisbane Children’s Hospital. We spent a day in July visiting our grandson who enjoyed being out after six weeks bedridden on a drip.
Lockdown at Bangalow meant visits to Byron Bay and walks up to the lighthouse. I saw whales for the first time off Cape Byro
Working from Bangalow was much easier than being in Sydney which had a harder and harsher lockdown than in 2020. It was audit time at work and our accountant got Delta Covid and was exteremely sick and hospitalised. He survived but it meant challenges and delays.
No one went to the office at all from June. Last year I was in regularly but Delta had everyone running for cover. No one back till October. Working from home was a blessing with all the other stuff I had going on.
Whales at Cape Byron.This was a typical day. Some days it was 4-5 meetings on screen.
October saw us in Brisbane for a weekend with our grandson#5 and his parents after a devastating September where he was readmitted after a seizure and on life support for a week.
We saw our son and other grandkids sporadically who also live in Bangalow. We went bowling and did other things with them when allowed to. The lockdown in Banglow was a much easier experience than Sydney.
Church work was ongoing and it was nothing to spend the day in front of Zoom and have evening meeting a few times a week related to building replaceemnt, my role as warden and as a nominator (recruiting a new senior minister)
Built in 1941 this building was demolished in October to be replaced by a modern education centre.
As the lockdown was ending in Sydney we planned a trip to Wollongong to check out our home and other things. Given my impending retirement I planned a visit to a new GP in Wollongong as my GP for the last nine years is in Sydney CBD. The trip bag was with my son’s dog, whose time in foster care came to an end as the foster carers had a dog themselves.
I had planned to have November off, but as the CEO was asked to travel at short notice to Africa I stayed on. In any case preparing for my replacement took a lot of work. So a lot of work was done planning for her start and documenting my role, much of which was in my head. As it turns out my thoughts of a month off ere wishful thinking. It was actually very busy.
My visit to Wollongong was planned to be home for a short time and to bring Pix back to Bangalow as her foster parents had a new dog.
The result of my GP visit was a new GP and some blood tests and an expectation I would see him when needed again. However back in Bangalow a few days later he rang me. Never have I had a GP call. He wanted to refer me to a haematologist as my white cells were low. As I wasn’t back in Wollongong till December we agreed to repeat the tests a few weeks later and see how it went.
Never having been to Accident and Emergency in my life, December opened with a visit to A&E at Lismore on 1 December and Wollongong on 5 December after blood tests showed no white blood cells. The impression from doctors was that I should be critically ill with almost no white cells – neutropenia was the diagnosis. A delay to my visit to Adelaide while I had a bone marrow biopsy and various other tests. At no time was I sick -I felt fine but was rattled. I ended up seeing a haematologist (Feb 2022) and after a myriad of tests it is assumed I had an asymptomatic virus.
Lismore Base A&E 1 December.
December saw me in Sydney to do a handover with my replacement and attend a farewell. It was held for the whole floor and I was one of four being farewelled. Virginia from Anglican Aid had an extra year on me, Rob had five and Jo was retiring after twenty years. Tim Swan gave one of the best farewell speeches for me. It was fantatstic and did take the mickey out of me. Lots of laughter.
I arrived in Adelaide after borders opened to visit our eldest daughter and grandson #5.
Tim should have been a comedian with the speech he gave for meEveryone laughedMy responseVirginia with whom I worked for nine years. 10 years.Jo and Rob also retiringGrandson #5 in Rundle Mall. Adelaide is very liveable.
These are just examples of the frenetic pace of 2021. If it were not for COVID I could not have coped. The lockdowns actually freed up a lot of time and increased my capacity. The biggest pressure at the end was preparing for my replacement, spending a week with her and ensuring we had as much in systems developed as possible to ensure the agency could continue as it grew.
I had three COVID tests in the week prior to Christmas and Christmas Day was a non event as we planned to head to Brisbane, preparing to assist with care for our grandson as his mother was booked for a caesareaan on 29 December. So after church we spent a few hours at the COVID testing clinic at Wollongong hospital to ensure we could get into Queensland. Healthy grandson #6 was safely delivered providing a nice end to 2021.
Usually called retirement I left my last day of paid employment on 23 December 2021 after 49 years, 7 months and 6 days. I am still technically on the payroll as some accrued leave is paid out till March 2022. For all intents and purposes I am as it is commonly called “retired.”
My final staff meeting had me lead devotions based on 1 Samuel 7 especially verse 12 – “Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”. That verse appeared on Prayermate that day in Spurgeons daily morning devotions. A coincidence? I think not. On 30 November I had what I thought was a routine blood test. Next day I received a call from the doctor telling me to go straight to hospital. That drive had my life flashing before me as I pondered what was so serious that a routine blood test required immediate investigation. Death is not something I fear. I trust my future to Christ. However I have so many plans for the future and serving God is one of them. Seeing grandchildren grow is another. I have seen God at work through my grandson who has challenged leukemia since he was 19 months old and how he and his parents together with outstanding medical care have maintained his life despite four years of uncertainty. I don’t think I could endure what he has been through is another thought that has come to me in that month. But my life has changed. No more structures around work. Plans to volunteer in Tanzania and looking at what my days bring. So really this blog after many years of not posting a thing (since 2017 when all I had were good intentions and no time) is to record what retirement looks like and how I manage.
On New Year’s Eve 2021 I reflected how hard 2021 has been personally. I write this after the 2022 AGM at church. But back in 2021, the last thing I needed was to be a warden. Try as I might I could not avoid it. It provided a lot of work and looking back, satisfaction in working with two other extraordinary people to get so much done in a year. Our Acting Senior Minister was amazing and he really provided a leadership style that got a lot out of everyone serving in 2021. Even though we were locked down from June to November a lot did get done.
Work kept me busy. My 4dpw part time role really saw me doing full time plus hours as I planned my exit and needed to complete an accumulation of eight years work to leave the agency with some systems going forward. A new accounting system introduced from December 2021 had to be bedded down. Development of a human resource system to replace a lever arch file. New email system and other systems as well as training the new person responsible for finances and a Chartered Accountant we contracted to assist us with complexity.
On new years eve I wrote in my journal (which started in late December) “This has been the hardest year of my life by far. Its like a confluence of events that have converged simultaneously. None of them on their own were challenging apart from the situation of our grandson and praying for him and trying to stand beside his parents interstate during lockdown and helpless to do much other than pray and provide moral support.
So 2021 ended with things I am grateful for as noted in the journal:
My last staff meeting
God’s faithfulness to me
A wife who has cared for me and our children
Our four kids as they have shown resilence in the face of COVID
For the way son and daughter in law have cared for and sacrificed for their son
For a new grandson born in the last week of the year
For Corinne’s wedding and a husband who is very caring of her and has supported her during difficult times
For Anglican Aid and all it has taught me especially helping my spiritual growth. For my church and an amazing effort in raising funds for the building
Friends at Alstonville who have we have spent time with while living in Bangalow
For an amazing health system for my grandson and latterly for myself.
For life. I take it for granted but was reminded when I received a call to go to A&E that every breath is God’s gift
For being able to complete years 1 and 2 of the PTC course
For plans to serve the diocese of Mara
For being able to leave Anglican Aid in good hands with Tim
AfricaEddie 