A Cruel Odyssey
When I brought up the possibility of early retirement, Barry, my husband, was skeptical.
“No way,” he said, “what about Owen’s college? The mortgage?”
I reminded him that Owen’s college fund was fine and that our mortgage was very nearly paid off in its entirety. We’d worked hard and we’d done well.
“Besides,” I said, “I’m too old to be taking calls, cooped up beneath those fluorescent lights all day.” I’d been working in the emergency room at the local hospital for nearly three decades and I was ready to get some fresh air, go places I’d never been, see places I couldn’t imagine. Barry had already retired from a highly coveted biomedical engineering position a couple years prior, and I was, well, jealous. I wanted free time, too, while I was still young enough to enjoy
