365 days, a journey to find joy in every day!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Yesterday I took a dear friend to the retirement board to file for her retirement.  We have shared a long and sometimes not so illustrious career serving the poor of the State of Arizona.  We often numbered with them, especially when we were raising our children.

Both of us were single parents, both of us working in a Welfare office, where sometimes those receiving benefits had more than we had.  Today we reminisced about those days.  Days when we didn’t know where dinner was going to come from for our children or how on earth we would buy a prom dress for the princess or shoes for our boys.  Somehow, we made it through those tough times, and became not hardened by our circumstance, but strong, like oak trees.  I can truly say that there is no one on earth I know that is stronger than my little Rosebud.

See, Rose has cancer.  She first found out about it in 2001, and since then has gone through two major surgeries, radiation and ongoing chemo treatments.  If you know anything about this type of medical treatment, I don’t have to tell you how sick she has been. And yet she has continued to work, keep her house, spend time with her family, take care of herself.  Sometimes she was so sick she scared me, and yet, she just got up and kept going.  Lately it has gotten even harder, and she still is kickin’ it. 

A few months back I talked about retiring.  Since we both started at the same time, I thought maybe she might want to go with me.  But she held on to the fact that she is afraid to stop working and start doing something else.  Like having a life.  I went ahead with my plans, and she danced around the subject, that is until yesterday.  Today, she is ecstatic and can hardly wait to begin her new life.  She called me a couple of times, and the tone in her voice was relief. 

Today my joy is that anticipation in my friend’s voice.  The knowing that a new life is beginning for her, and that we will be spending a lot more time having fun than working.  Rose, my hat’s off to you.  For all the hard years of work, you deserve a break!