Not waiting till 100, and not waiting till gone - celebrating now

That is unbeatable. A ton of work and thought must have gone into that. You were cherished then and I bet still now.. Amazing, astounding and as many superlatives as can be fitted in.

Thank you kindly. I had worked there for 22 years so had plenty of time to make an impression!

Just to say, I dont think you need a load of people and a big do to celebrate. On this forum, many of you are always celebrating life with ordinary things like lunch with friends/ family, walks in nature , holidays. I just think as a country and a people, we are uncomfortable with expressing emotions outwardly and celebrating the people we care about so they know it. Given who we are on this forum, it would be nice to be able to accept love being expressed by those who do care about us, whether that is one person or many. And of course, we need to make sure the people we love know it too. How many people's funerals are the place where emotions are expressed, tears shed etc. Nothing wrong with that, but how much nicer to have had the chance to express those things when the person was still alive.

x

Wow, that sounds amazing, you have inspired me. I'm off home for a holiday to NZ on the 18th April (covid willing) so I think I'll have an impromptu family knees up. Probably best to keep the thought that it's a fake wake to myself. 

My family loves a good old get together, there's usually a few guitars and we all have a party piece so with enough beers we all sing along, what we lack in ability we make up for in exuberance. 

Doc has cleared me to travel and I can't wait to see their faces and feel the embrace of my quirky lot.

So thanks for the idea. Xx

Right Kiwi gal,

We shall all be expecting posts from those hallowed islands in between your family raves.

chat to Pet, she will be awake when you are. .... I think! Enjoy.

Very impressive, 22 years in the same job. And it also reflects very well on you that your former colleagues organise such lovely event. I fully agree, better now and with you sharing the memories than w/o you.

That situation is what I am facing now. End of March 22 my contract was terminated and I am now in 100% disability retirement. I was already asked what kind of farewell I would like and gave them very few brief input. It will be a surprise and I am not quite sure how I survive this. There were 14 y in this job (in a pharma company in Zürich with focus on own brand gynaecology products). Already I received nice emails from my Asian colleagues and some external partners. It's rather difficult to cope with this sudden change, neither my colleagues nor I expected the official grading decision so fast. Usually it takes much longer - kind of shock to me. My original plans for retirement were very different.

A psycho-onkologist draw the picture of one's life train which was all of a sudden moved from a well- outlined to a entire new and different track and now travels in an unknown direction.

Hi Leonie4410,

Yes is a blow to have plans turned upside down in this way. I had planned to retire at 64 but brought it forward a few months after I was diagnosed. Luckily I was able to reduce hours as a precursor to actually stopping work, so I gradually got used to the idea. The metaphor of the train tracks is one I used in my work ( mental health) when I was doing training sessions. Slightly different from the oncology one, but I used idea of railway points shifing just a few degrees which would mean journey ended up somewhere completely different to original planned journey. That can be good or bad, and maybe it can be down to intepretation. We should none of us see work as the main point, so although enforced retirement is not great, retirement itself can be a revelation. I am lucky that in the main, treatment has left me fairly free of side effects until recently, so I was able to volunteer at a couple of charities ( dog rescue and foodbank) until covid changed the railway points for all of us. I have not been able to go back to those roles, but I do make sure I see people regularly for walks, lunches etc and I have two of my own rescue dogs who give me unconditional love and demand walks. I really hope you can find a way to make the transition between work and your new life work for you and that Switzerland is a place which offers opportunities for connection with others - in the end it isour relationships with other people which matters most.

Hope your farewell day is all you want it to be and that you too feel the love from others.

xx

Love the expression "Fake wake" . Yes, maybe best kept to yourself.  And if Ted reads this he will be completely confused by what is "woke" and what is "fake wake", I am "woke" and proud, and glad to have inspired you to have a "fake wake". Hope you get to go to NZ and have a great party.

x

Thanks Ted,  I'm sure gonna give it my all. Counting sleeps till I go.

Of course I am confused. Two o levels 60 years ago did not equip me for such nonsense.

I am glad my time has come and gone.I

Woke, wake, walk, Wooky Hole, what next. 

Don't worry about me and my dodgy heart. 

I think that was marvellous OBS. Being an only child, I've never had a big, immediate family that I could have a party with, and my cousins are all much older than me - many already gone - and the rest spread out around the country/world. My closest friends and all my old colleagues are also either ill, and couldn't travel, or already shuffled off, so my ideal would be a small get-together amounting to a handful, but with lovely food.

I have thought it would be lovely to hire a private chef for a special dinner - where they cook it all and serve it too if you wish. The other idea I had would be to hire a special country house with a swimming pool and have people come for a lovely holiday with me and my husband.  I think my best chance of a knees-up is to go to Ellie's do. If you're going, perhaps we could manage a bit of a bop?   Rainie x