My Dad's Road to Retirement
We all know what retirement is and for some that milestone is closer than others. Being a millennial, I’ve been told about the importance of saving for retirement a couple 100 times and have been doing so since I entered the workforce. I never really grasped the enormity of it until watching my dad go through the process of deciding to retire, planning out his retirement, and finally waking up on a Monday morning whenever his little heart desired.
The CliffNotes version of my dad’s career: In his mid-20s he started working for the same company he retired with at 65. How many of us can say that nowadays? Heck, I’ve worked for 5 different companies since I graduated college. My dad was one of those kids who graduated college, took an entry-level position with the goal of working hard and climbing the ladder within that same company, and dedicated his career life to do that right up until his last day “on the clock.”
I’ve watched my dad take work calls or check his email almost every vacation we went on. This never took away from our experience as a family, but was something he made time for because that’s the type of guy he is. That same dad, who worked on days when he took PTO, made it to every dance recital, soccer game, and basically any activity that I had. And he wasn’t just a dad who made it there, he was a dad that was present when he was there. Trust me, I still hear the echoes of “let’s go #11” followed by the sound of his clapping hands or sometimes the dropping of a hat that he tossed when I made a not so great play – sorry dad, but I had to. He certainly had and still continues to have his priorities in check, all while still being the guy who legitimately cared about what he did professionally, the people he did it with, and dedication to always doing the right thing.
As my brother and I became adults, work continued to take up a good amount of time for my dad and he would still get that adrenaline rush of a job well done. So needless to say, my brother and I were a little concerned as to what retirement would bring for him (and my mom) with this newfound time. See, my dad didn’t just decide to retire on his own, my mom, brother, and I were the catalysts who indirectly, and sometimes very directly, pushed him to making that decision.
It wasn’t like my dad woke up one day and thought, “I’m ready to retire.” In fact, I’m not sure if he was really 100% ready when he did. I do know though that as he got older and recognized retirement would be his eventual fate, he accepted it and even started to welcome it over time. My dad was the Red Riding Hood of retirement. I think he had four or five different retirement dates set that continued to get pushed back. My brother and I were tired of hearing about his retirement plan. We literally spent close to a year hearing this on the other side of the phone, “My new retirement date is…” My response was always…well... not exactly positive. I would remind him of his friends who had already retired and the destinations he wanted to travel. My dad reassured me that when he was ready he would retire. Little did I know something very little would provide that final push.
Enter Tony Daniel Harrington.
Tony came into the world on December 17, 2017 and was the first grandchild for my parents. The grandson-grandpa bond was almost instant and grew as Tony turned into this little person. This is when I saw the retirement game change for my dad. My parents don’t live down the street from us so it’s almost always a trip that needs to be planned whenever they come to visit or we travel back home. For any of you who have had the experience of seeing your parents with your child, it’s one of the coolest blessings. I’ve seen this soft side of my dad I didn’t know existed, especially in his hat-tossing days, and joyful reactions from my son that are unlike any other.
In the hospital room, the day after Tony was born, my dad turned to me and said he wanted to be at every activity and event Tony had as he got older. When I think back on that I realize it wasn’t the clock ticking on my dad’s travel opportunities or the pressure of retirement being the eventual next step in a pretty amazing career, it was the dedication to family and being “there” that became the reason for retirement, something my dad had been a true professional at all along.
So as that final day came and my parents went out to celebrate with a group of my dad’s colleagues, it occurred to me that they weren’t just toasting to a great career coming to a conclusion, they were saying cheers to my dad’s title of grandpa, which was the next step in his career, and a job he was truly born to do.