The responses to my retirement post are a real eye opener.

[dem in texas]

102. I loved working - still busy at 83

I stayed home with my 3 kids until they were all in school. My husband held two jobs, I babysat and sewed for people, all to bring in money to the family. When the last kid went in 1st grade, I started to school to study accounting. We borrowed one thousand dollars to pay for my tuition and books plus to buy me an old beat up car to drive, That paid off in spades. I after one year of school, I took a job as a bookkeeper while still going to school in the evenings. I only had one job with a bad boss and after a few months, I quit. Never had any sexual harassment problems, I think having a big, tough husband kept the creeps away.

My husband and I have been married 64 years. We always function as a team and we balance each other; I'd want to be cautious, he'd want to be bold, we'd argue and work it out.

I continued to go to school off and on over the years, When the web came in, I went to school, studied web design and programming. We started selling on Ebay and I set up 2 websites where we sold antiques and collectibles. My husband retired at 62, I kept working until age 65, but had been ready to quit for several years, but felt a loyalty to my boss because he was so good to me.

I am now 82 and my husband is 85. He is almost blind and I have to walk with a cane, so it's hard for us to get out.

That said, I closed down my main website when Covid hit 2 years ago. We have a booth in an antique mall, trying to knockdown $1,000 a month on that. I make jewelry and sell in our booth along with antiques and collectibles. My son and his wife are helping us with the booth. I've sold on Etsy (my jewelry) and it has done well there, it's just a pain to go to the post office. I looking into solving the mailing problem.

Life has been a big adventure and I feel so blessed every morning when open eyes.