Cherlyn Granrose

Retirement, like anything else, requires flexibility, as prior plans become ill advised. First, the water heater pipe bursting and flooding seven floors and 16 units of my midtown Atlanta condominium caused me to rethink my plan to retire to Atlanta. I sold the condo in which I had been spending weekends and summers in preparation for retirement and looked for other options.

Second, my dad’s illness and death made it preferable that I remain in the United States to assist my mother, so I decline the post for economic development in Kenya in the Peace Corps that I thought might provide a gradual transition out of academic life and into a broader social action retirement. Instead, I negotiated a gradual two year reduction in responsibility from my Berry College position as a different sort of timed adjustment to retirement focused more inside the USA.

Third, I put into effect Plan C and found a single level duplex in a wooded neighborhood in Athens GA that fit my budget, provided close shopping center conveniences. This location allows me to stay reasonably close to my daughter’s family and the grandchildren in Roswell GA and to the Atlanta airport for retirement travel. It also provides some intellectual stimulation from programs at the University of Georgia, the Georgia State Botanical Gardens, and the Georgia Museum of Art. So I sold my home in Rome and have moved to Athens in May 2014 and I’m busy exploring possible volunteer and recreational activities.