The retirement day.
I could feel myself being a bit weepy walking away from work
for the last time. Not actually tearful but certainly filled up. I couldn’t quite
see why.
Thinking about it, I’d not had any emotional farewells on the
day; just handed in my keys and laptop, deleted everything from my computer – I’ve
been progressing through that for weeks - went through some routines, put some
office stuff in my bag and set off early for the station.
It wasn’t about loss of the job. I’m not massively committed
to St Christopher’s, it’s been a good billet, nice people, interesting work,
but I don’t totally believe in palliative care and the hospice movement. Probably
that’s evident from my St Christopher’s blog over the years, and certainly will
be in my new end-of-life care blog. I’ve wound down in a classic way over ten
years, so I’ve been progressing towards retirement for ages, I’ve got used to it,
I don’t have worrying health, care or financial problems, I’ve got family
support and family things to do, I have continuing work and personal interest things
to do.
So why the tugged heartstrings? For one thing, although in
many ways I have the security of no major change in other parts of my life, I
feel uncertain, perhaps insecure. It's because I don’t quite know how it’s going to
be. I’ve been busy with work, and often too much of it, for forty or more
years. What is my place in the world going to be now? And does it matter? I don’t
know yet.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI have recently been reading your blog and I was wondering if you could expand upon your point that you do not believe in palliative care and the hospice movement?
Thank you,
Byran Driver