Lady of Leisure

I got a text yesterday from Big Sis saying she had a message from Mum. She has been thinking for a few months about when she should retire, as there were two options for her pension and she had to choose one by July. One of the options was better if she was to retire in the next couple of years; the other was lots better if she retired from 65 onwards. She was trying to weigh up the options and asked Big Sis and I a while ago to both read through the information she had been sent to help her make the decision. When it came down to it, the real decision would be about when she wanted to retire. If she knew that, then the choice of pension would be relatively easy.

Anyway, a week or so ago, Big Sis said that she had called Mum for a chat and it seems she has decided she would retire sooner rather than later. Work has been incredibly stressful for her over the past few years, she has had 4 different (but equally incompetent) managers, hasn’t been paid accordingly for the level she has been working at and has had time off due to stress caused by work. She loves her job, but the system makes her job unbearable. I think if she had still been enjoying it, she probably would have happily worked a few more years to get a better pension deal, but the way things had been recently, I didn’t really see how she would be able to tolerate it for that long. Even day to day it sounded like it was a struggle. I was glad she had made a decision and one that seemed to be the right one for her.

Yesterday, Big Sis hears that Mum is going to collect stuff from the office and will have finished work from today onwards! We knew she had decided to retire, but didn’t know it would have such immediate consequences! I know when Mum makes a decision, that’s usually it, but I had to laugh at the speed of her actions. I am very pleased for her, though. She has worked so hard to get where she is, had a difficult childhood with very little love or support and certainly not much nurturing. She paid her own way through nursing school, taking about 10 years to qualify because she had to work throughout her studies in order to pay her fees. Despite all the setbacks she was faced with, she has extraordinary faith and never wavered in her beliefs. She had no-one else to rely on other than God, so she had to put all her trust in Him and He came through for her. I am really proud of my Mum and am so glad she is now going to enjoy a well-deserved retirement. She will have the time to do all the things she loves most – gardening, maintaining her home, knitting, crocheting, cross-stitching, reading and so on. And it also now means, according to our family joke, that Big Sis can now have some babies as Mum can look after them. That was always my excuse for not being married or settled down yet – I couldn’t have children until Mum retired – dammit, now I’ll have to think of a new reason!

Sadly for her, she can never retire from the job of being a mum, but we’re very thankful for that. Happy retirement, Mum. Your new life as a lady of leisure starts here!