Is retirement an event or a process? Some men don’t really want to retire and avoid doing so at any cost. Perhaps, they fear they are only what they “do” and there is no reality in who they “are,” who they “might be.” My high school friend, Bob Wick, once told me he could never retire. He enjoyed his life as an artist; he had more than only “work” as an artist. So maybe it’s true, an artist cannot retire; the practice of art is their life, not their work. Perhaps, this is also the case with others who completely integrate their life, what they do, what they accomplish, with who they are. This was not the case for me.
I sought integration, unity within my own life, but did not find it during my working career. I was pleased when I retired from my daily interactions at Baylor College of Medicine in June 1999. No doubt there were days when I enjoyed my work, what I was doing, the interactions I had with others. There might have been days when I thought I must have accomplished something. However, some twenty years later, I have difficulty in considering what they might be. Nevertheless, I still remember the immediate events associated with my leaving Baylor Med.
My retirement process began a year before I physically left the College. It began when Bobby Alford, the Academic Dean of Medicine and my immediate supervisor, informed me that my contract for the following academic year would not be renewed, according to instructions he had received from Ralph Feigin, the new BCM President.
I was 63 at the time; my original plan assumed I’d retire at age 65. Did it really matter that my retirement would be a year earlier than I had planned? The amount in my TIAA-CREF retirement fund, at the time, indicated I could retire at any time I wanted. As it turned out, the 2000 – 2002 “Recession” eliminated 50% of those funds, but the figures in 1998-99 were comforting enough for me to begin the process.
I was enjoying our new home in Longwood. I looked forward to gardening and outdoor efforts with new plants. Grass cutting would be less welcomed, but it could be the time to hire help for this recurring task. I knew I would be well occupied with the enjoyable events I had undertaken as a Permanent Deacon at Christ the Good Shepherd. Perhaps, I could now realize the integration in my life that I had sought for so many years. Leaving Baylor Med would be welcomed.
The actual events, however, were somewhat of a surprise to me. In 1999, I would have been with the College for twenty-two years. I knew many faculty and staff members. It was frequently the case that a retirement party, usually given by one’s department or office, would be held in honor of the departing member. The secretaries and financial assistant in Alford’s office did gather for punch and pastry. They presented me with a photocopied selection of recipes under the title: Bubba Camerino’s Gumbo. They knew I enjoyed fixing gumbo and would make good use of their effort. I have.
At the time, I had two weeks of vacation time “owed” to me. In late June 1999, on my last day with Baylor College of Medicine, I packed up my personal belongings and left for a vacation trip with Karen to the University of Notre Dame, for two weeks of classes on spiritual direction. Looking at it one way, I never “retired” from the College, I merely went on vacation and never returned.