Happy Retirement

Happy Retirement   

Marla flipped through the age worn pages of the family album thinking how each picture told a story. She came across pictures of her dad’s retirement party from June of 1982 at the ‘Knights of Columbus’ hall. The one photo of her dad and mom spoke volumes. She never seen her dad so happy as he grasped her mom around the shoulders pulling her in close. She could see the lines of stress relieved in his huge smile. He had such a good time that night. Seeing his friends from work, dancing the jitterbug with his sister and slow dancing with her mom to the ‘Anniversary Waltz’. Marla and her two older sisters danced with him to ‘Daddy’s Little Girl.’ Looking at the picture of Marla and him dancing, she could see he was so proud. When they got home, he sat at the kitchen table with the family, which he never did, and opened up his cards. Tears of joy were running down his cheeks as he opened each one.  

He had worked at ‘The Pennsylvania Refrigeration as a shipper/receiver for 30 years. He’d get up weekday mornings at 4:00 and leave the house at 6:00 to catch the subway into the city. He’d arrive back home at 4:00. Due to some organizational changes, he was able to take early retirement at 62. He could now spend his days playing his piano and doing his artwork. He looked forward to having his days to do what he wanted and spending time with her mom.  

He spent his days down in the garage drawing and painting. He had several Disney characters in Christmas attire on masonite wood. He’d cut them out and put them up around the house at Christmas. Marla’s mom always complained about the holes he was making in the walls, but he didn’t care. He would fix them after the holiday. Marla still has a snowman he made that she puts up in her house.  

He would always tell Marla when she was going out to buy clothes for work, “You only need two outfits when you’re retired, one to wear while the other one is washing.” 

As the years wore on, her dad wanted to spend more time with her mom, however, her mom had her own agenda, shopping with Marla’s aunt and cutting her coupons. The adjustment of him being home and her mother with her schedule were causing a lot of fights. One time when Marla came home from work, she was sitting at the kitchen table eating dinner as her mom was cutting coupons. Her dad came out to the kitchen and started yelling at her mother about something and the next thing Marla knew there were scissors flying across the table at her dad. Marla got up and took her dinner plate to her room so she wouldn’t be in the line of fire.  

“Now look at what you did, Marla can’t even eat her dinner in peace,” her mother yelled. 

One day in 1986 when Marla and her mom were coming in through the basement from shopping, she caught her dad shaking as he was putting on a load of wash. Marla was shocked as she asked what was wrong. Her dad put his finger up to his lips and shushed her. When her mom came in behind her, she asked what was wrong.  

“Dad is shaking,” Marla immediately said. 

“It’s nothing”, he said as he made his way upstairs. 

A few weeks later, he was being examined before he was to have a cataract operation and his heart was fibrillating. The doctor sent him to the ER and they found he had a heart attack a few weeks ago. Marla thought back to the day when he was shaking and knew there had been something going on then.  

The hospital ran tests but he soon shut them down when they found some scar tissue in his stomach. He checked himself out against the doctor’s recommendation and went home with some heart medicine but refused to take it since it made him feel funny. A week later, he wasn’t feeling well. When the family called the doctor, he told them that their dad was on the verge of a major heart attack and should come back to the hospital immediately. However, against Marla and the family’s wishes, he wouldn’t go back to the hospital.  

Friday, January 16th, 1987, Marla had come home from work and was having dinner with her father. 

“I’m feel like I’m fading away from everyone,” her father commented. “I just have such a funny feeling,” he said touching his chest.  

Marla didn’t know what he meant and kept on eating knowing it was useless to tell him what to do. After dinner, she went up to her room. The next thing she heard was a bang downstairs. As she headed down the stairs, her mother was calling her. When Marla got to the bottom of the stairs, her father was laying on his back between the coffee table and sofa. She rushed over and moved the coffee table out of the way. Her father was gasping for air.  

“Dad, Dad, what’s happening?” she frantically asked kneeling down beside him.   

“I....can’t.....breathe.....”. 

“Mom, call 911,” Marla said in a panic.  

When the policeman arrived, Marla’s dad told him, “I’m not going to the hospital.”  

“Well, sir, just let the paramedics take a look at you,” the policeman said.  

As he said that, Marla’s dad started to gag. The blond hair, 6 ft policeman instructed Marla to go back outside and wait for the ambulance. She stood out there for what seemed forever waiting for the sound of the ambulance. When she finally heard it, a sigh of relief escaped her. She hurried back to the house; her father was now unconscious. The paramedics rushed in and worked relentlessly on him. When he was stable enough to be moved, they put him on a stretcher. As they were taking him out of the house, they told Marla, her mom and her one sister who had arrived, that they had a heartbeat and no pulse.  

When they got to the hospital, the family was ushered into a private room to wait for the rest of the family to get there. After Marla’s two brothers, and sister came, an ER doctor in his 30’s with dark brown hair walked in with a tall balding Catholic priest close behind.  

“We did everything possible, I’m sorry,” the doctor said as he grasped her mother’s hand.  

“He was given the last rites,” the priest informed them.  

They all broke down crying and tried to console each other.  

The days after the funeral were so strange. The piano sat in the corner of the dining room silent. Every time Marla passed by it, she couldn’t help but cry as she imagined him sitting there. Remembering all the times she tried to learn to play it and the many times he woke everyone up with his early Saturday morning playing. When she went down to the garage, his drawings and paintings were laying all a strewn. All his hard work, Marla thought, so many hours spent down here creating. Now what are they going to do with these paintings?  

That smile on the picture from the retirement party definitely told a story. He was so happy to retire and only 4 short years later, at the young age of 66, he was in the grave. He lost his zest for life after he realized retirement wasn’t all he had hoped it to be. Marla wiped the tears from her eyes as she closed the family album and put it back on the bookshelf of memories.