Using autobiography to clear the cobwebs for the bonus years

Unabridged from my Bonus Years column in the Lifestyle section of The Sunday Capital, Annapolis, Maryland It was late one Friday evening – this was nearly 15 years ago.  I had just returned to Annapolis from a week-long business trip. Going through the mail that piled up over the week, I found a FedEx package from my uncle…

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The gift of hospitality does not include retirement

Every so often you meet genuinely special people – people who make you say, “I would like to be like them.”  Mary Sue and I met two people like this shortly after we moved to Annapolis in 1993.  I’m referring to Graham and Libby Gutsche, who were married in 1948 and will soon celebrate their…

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Aging goal: Getting better, not just older

For the past few months we have written each week about Marylanders in their post-60 bonus years, seniors fully engaged as editors, nurses, volunteers, philanthropists, home builders, coaches, music directors, cooks, mentors, even Olympians – including several seniors working into their 80s.   Whether you consider the stories we have covered or think about people…

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Presidents use bonus years to write a comeback story

Presidents of the US, like the rest us, also retire.  In fact, polls show that about half the American people would like to retire Barack Obama on November 6th – and the other half would like Obama’s retirement to be delayed four years. This weekend, however, is special.  You see, President Herbert Hoover, who died…

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‘Work is a blessing:’ The gift of satisfying work in later life

Physician Alexis Carrel, recipient of the 1912 Nobel Prize in Medicine for pioneering work on vascular suturing, organ transplants and the aging of cells, famously said, “The aging man should neither stop working nor retire. Leisure is even more dangerous for the old than for the young.” That also applies to women, according to Mary…

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