Starting Over

About the Book

Not since you graduated from high school have you had such an opportunity. Back then you were about to embark upon Adulthood, and the big question was “What do I want to be when I grow up?”

Now, you’re about to retire, and a whole new Adulthood awaits you. Think of it. You have possibly 20 to 30 years of freedom staring you in the face. You don’t have to do anything. No one’s expecting you to show up. You don’t have to leave the house, or even get out of bed. This time, the big question is “What do I want to do with the rest of my life?”

Starting Over: Reinventing Life After 60 presents inspiring stories of men and women across the US who asked themselves that important question, and arrived at surprising and meaningful answers. They figured out that just beyond the deliciousness of sleeping late, savoring the newspaper and morning coffee, and spending the day at the bridge table or golf course lurked a life without purpose.

Stan Appelbaum and his wife, Cathy, moved to Bonita Bay, FL when they retired. “For a lot of people around here, the highlight of their day is the Early Bird Special at the local restaurant. Cathy and I could see ourselves fast going down that same road. We spent our first couple of years in Florida boating and golfing. Then one day we looked at each other and asked “Is this all there is?” Today Stan’s life has gone full circle. Abandoned to an orphanage as an infant and growing up in abusive foster homes, Stan now devotes himself full-time to bettering the lives of Florida foster children. It is the most meaningful work of his life.

Tom Skilling of Orleans, MA said, “Forced retirement, as the airlines do with pilots at age 60, is degrading. I’d been a pilot for 30 years and didn’t know what I was going to do when I had to retire. I tried a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and sat around a lot. Then I got cancer.

“The next twelve months of my life were lost to radiation and recovery.” He leaned forward. “I’m convinced that if you sit around, you die. Your body gets weak. Your mind gets sluggish. You have nothing to talk about. You’re not doing anything!” Tom isn’t sitting around anymore. He and his wife, Mimi, a clinical psychologist, opened a seasonal restaurant on Cape Cod. They are challenged and enriched by it. They’ve made new friends through it. They have plenty to talk about now.

“Just quitting work does not fulfill the human spirit,” said Pat Smith, 71, of Passe-a-Grille, FL. “So many people retire from something, rather than to something. I liked my job and figured I’d be bored to tears in retirement. But then one day I saw an injured pelican below my balcony. I called the Seabird Sanctuary in St. Petersburg to rescue him. Little did I know that experience would give me a reason to retire. Now, four days a week, I travel up and down the Tampa/St. Pete coast rescuing injured herons, egrets, pelicans and the like for that same Sanctuary. “Can’t you just see this grey haired old lady running across your yard with her big net?” she laughed.

How do you discover what you’d like to do with the rest of your life? How do you ensure that you are passionate about those 20 to 30 years ahead, and avoid settling into a life without meaning? Through intimate interviews, the men and women of these brief stories share with you how they went about finding their ‘retirement’ paths, and what they’ve learned along the way. They tell you what their new lives entail, and how they got started. In the process, they unveil a variety of possibilities for you to consider for your own retirement, and offer pointers on how to get started.

Crammed with ideas that can be mixed and matched from one story to another, the joyful stories of Starting Over: Reinventing Life After 60 will inspire, enlighten, and

About the Author

Pat Skilling Kellerman, M.A., Adult Development and Aging, is a retirement transition coach and workshop leader. Retired from AARP, she has over 30 years experience in training and consulting in the U.S. and abroad. As she neared the time for her own retirement, she had difficulty deciding what she wanted to do until she realized the problem was a lack of role models for today’s retirement lifestyle. Now she has them. Meeting and writing about the men and women of STARTING OVER has provided all the role models she’ll ever need.