...my Dad is well into his seventies and still working.
For your Dad...Sounds from your description like he's got plenty that would keep him busy, and he'd probably thrive...
My Dad still keeps in touch with fellow classmates he graduated college with; this month they are informally celebrating their FIFTIETH class reunion. Informally, because with everybody spread across the continent and getting older and less inclined to travel, their reunion is more of an online gathering. Though not all will log-in/call-in, online is how they keep each other updated. Nearly all are no longer working and are fully retired.
My Dad told me – in his graduating class of 46 (in his major), only three are known to have passed away. Only THREE in a group of men all in their Seventies! Surprised, I told my Dad that this rate of longevity simply won’t be the case with my peers and more generally for my generation.
Age 35 is when I noticed too many of my past classmates start passing. For about the past half-decade, those I grew up with through grade school have passed away at a rate of about 2 to 3 per year.
Obituaries shared across social media never mention a cause of death. But further googling of their names might turn up a highway patrol report detailing a fatal car crash or a fundraising campaign to fight a terminal illness. When no reason surfaces, it’s safe to assume a reason unfit for print. Namely suicide or especially drug overdoses which, for several deceased, I was able to confirm with others.
All sad stuff, but it got me thinking – in the context of history, I’m guessing a steady rate of several peer deaths/yr through your 30s & 40s isn’t out of line with history’s general life expectancy rates? And more notably when recent history’s post-WWII steady rise of life expectancy is removed from overall stats? (The post-WWII increase in life expectancy began reversing across the First World in 2019.)
Taking this all back to retirement, discussions of retirement mostly center around finances (and golf). But as I steadily find out the passing of more classmates that I spent a few years of my childhood with – in school, little league, scouts, church youth group – I would say that long term friendships maintained after so many decades are one of the more overlooked, valuable sources of strengths you can have going into retirement. Even if by now they’re mostly casual friends, connected by only Christmas cards and occasional facebook interactions, I would advise retirement as a worthwhile time to gauge who from your past might be more intentionally connected with to relive the past and brag about the grandkids.
