WORKING POST-RETIREMENT 

My last day of work with the Veterans Review and Appeal Board was September 18, 2013, a Wednesday. The next morning, I flew to Barcelona to join my buddies, The Over the Hill Gang, for a cycling trip near Girona. Elva had left home before me and was walking the Camino de Santiago solo from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to the halfway point near Sahagun, Spain. We were to meet in Girona, spend a few days there with friends, and board a Holland America ship in Barcelona for our first-ever cruise, a forty-two-day adventure in the Mediterranean that would hook us forever on this mode of travel.

In my mind, this marked the end of work and career and the beginning of a new chapter in my life. I’d imagined myself travelling in retirement and enjoying myself doing, well, nothing much. We had the means and the time to do it and the good health it takes to enjoy new experiences. In the years before COVID hit, we visited some eighty countries, and always had our next two trips planned.

On Saturday morning, March 14, 2020, we had just finished a group bike ride near Ft. Myers, FL. The day before, Canada and the US had declared national emergencies because of the COVID outbreak. One of my buddies, a rider from Toronto, told me he’d heard that his health insurance would lapse on March 18^th and that he’d be heading North soon.

Elva and I were to spend a couple of days with friends in northern Florida. We chatted with them to make sure they’d be comfortable if we came, and they said they would be. While there, we called our travel insurance provider and they confirmed that we’d have to be back in Canada before the 20^th. Saying goodbye to them and our good friends in Ft. Myers, we never imagined that the world would be set on its head and that our lives would change as they did. The drive home was surreal: people with fear on their faces, near-empty interstates, nervous border guards.

We struggled as others did to keep active and socially connected through those early months of the pandemic before the first vaccines came along. We cancelled a planned fall trip to South America, and I began to get bored. We’d simplified our lives by moving into an apartment, so there were few chores to keep me busy. The road ahead wasn’t looking very promising travel-wise, so I decided to look for work, something I never expected I’d do. After a few doors closed, a friend helped me land a contract with Holland College to develop a preliminary plan for a centre of excellence in watershed management. It was the kind of project that was right in my wheelhouse – an area of great interest to me, a committed client, good money, and a tight timeframe.

Between September 2013 and October 2020, I’d done no work to speak of. A stint as the complaints officer under the French Language Services Act proved to be a waste of my time and government’s money, so I resigned after three years. I’d been a board member of the Winter River – Tracadie Bay Watershed Association for several years and continued in that role as we struggled through Zoom meetings, trying to make sense of the complicated masking and social distancing rules that would hamper normal summer operations.

The work with Holland College was a surprise in the sense that it demonstrated to me that I could still be of use and that, most importantly, my skills were still marketable. In December 2020, I came across a request for proposals in La Voix acadienne from La Société acadienne et francophone to conduct a feasibility study for a shared HR service. I threw my hat in the ring and was selected for the project although I hadn’t worked in the HR field since 2009. It turned out to be much more rewarding than I’d expected and reconnected me with the Acadian and francophone community – organizations and relationships I’d let slide.

In April 2021, I got a call from the Executive Director of La Fédération acadienne de la Nouvelle-Écosse. She’d heard about my work on the Island and was looking for someone to replace their HR specialist on an interim basis. I expected both assignments to be short-lived and for two HR specialists to be hired full-time in the summer of 2021. Both jobs were advertised but neither could be filled because the market for HR generalists is so tight. Long story short, ServiceRH Île-du-Prince-Édouard launched in the fall of 2021 and ServiceRH Nouvelle-Écosse hired an HR person in August 2022. I still work part-time for both.

While on a cruise in Norway last October, I received an email from the Director of the provincial Forests, Fish and Wildlife Division asking if I’d be willing to help develop terms of reference and a work plan for a forestry commission. Fiona had devastated Island forests, and, for a variety of reasons, several key public policy initiatives were lagging. I said I would, not imagining that my interest would turn into a twenty-nine-month project when the Forestry Commission was announced last January.

I’ve learned so much over the past two years and have enjoyed experiences too numerous to mention. I’m not a whiz at videoconferencing, but I can hold my own, and I’ve become more adept at using the other tools common in today’s workplace. I work remotely, from wherever in the world I happen to be, and that’s considered OK in today’s workplace. Most importantly, I’ve been able to connect with people half my age and offer them the benefit of my workplace and life experiences. Their attitude toward work may be far different than mine was at their age, but the onus has been on me to understand their work-life balance and the metrics they use to measure a healthy workplace. Truth be known, I’ve learned as much or more from them than they’ve learned from me.

I haven’t done this work for nothing! While Revenue Canada takes more than its fair share of my earnings, there’s usually enough left over for the next trip. And Elva and I have donated to various causes. Next time you’re at the Prince County Hospital, look for the donors’ banner and you might see our names there beside the Callbecks, the Keys, and the Robinsons. We’ve given to the Centre de récréation Évangéline, the Musée Acadien, the Société promotion Grand-Pré, and the Wellington Fire Department. I haven’t found it yet, but there’s a seat in the Confederation Centre of the Arts main theatre with our name on it. And, when Père Albin decides he’s going to save a church, we’re happy to help.

My life after retirement hasn’t been perfect health wise. In April 2019, I first noticed a problem while riding my bike, a passion of mine as many will know. In cycling parlance, it’s referred to as “blowing up”. I knew I’d slow down with age, but I expected it to be a gradual decline. This was very different.

My family doctor eventually referred me to a cardiologist who eventually diagnosed an irregular heart rhythm, atrial fibrillation, a-fib for short. It took two-and-a-half years to diagnose what should have been an obvious possibility given my physical condition, my medical history, and my symptoms. In November 2021, I was referred to the Saint John Regional Hospital for a procedure that’s supposed to correct the problem. The last time I spoke to the scheduling people there, they told me I might have to wait another year! So, best case scenario, I’ll have waited almost five years for a routine day surgery meant to improve my quality of life.

The best my cardiologist could do was put me on medication while I waited. I tried beta-blockers for a few months but they didn’t work. I’m now on an anti-arrhythmic; it worked for a while but its effects are wearing off. Physically, I can’t do the things I used to, like riding with my cycling friends, The Over the Hill Gang. Having coffee with them is not the same as riding (and suffering) in a smoothly running paceline like I did for fifteen years.

Our healthcare system, once the pride of Canada, is broken. And what frustrates me the most is that people who haven’t looked after themselves like I have jump the line consistently and get ahead of me.

To say that I’m thankful for work does not surprise me now like it would have before COVID came along. I’ll enter my eighth decade on this Earth later this year. We’ve got a trip planned for the fall. I’m enjoying meaningful work and don’t really see an end to it as long as I have my marbles. I keep hoping for a solution to my medical condition but will not sit on the couch while life passes me by.