Cancer diagnoses interfere with long term planning on many levels. For a while I wasn't sure I would be around for retiring. My husband and I have relatively vague plans to pay off the house and then retire sooner as opposed to later but probably not for a while yet.
Last night I went out with an old friend from junior high. She got out of college and got a job where her father worked for a year or two. She has been there for more than years and plans on retiring in a few more. Her husband has stage IV colon cancer and she doesn't want to have worked through the last years of his life. They have even met with a financial planner to discuss this.
Her big plans are to take a year off - something she hasn't ever done, even when her child was born - and do nothing. She hopes to eventually maybe volunteer at a food pantry, go back to work part time, or come up with a hobby to keep her busy. They want to downsize their main house and keep their vacation house and split their time between the two. She has plans for the rest of her life.
What do I want to do with the rest of my life? Stop going to the (damn) doctors. Stop being in pain. Feeling better. Retiring quietly to garden and knit with my husband (he won't be knitting) someplace where we can sit on the porch and admire the view. Too bad I don't have any details on this yet. Maybe its time to start planning.
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