This is the third and final post of getting ready for a new project here at RJsCorner entitled “RetCom Life on the Margins” Yesterday’s was about my struggles in life. This one is about the Joys. I will close out this post with more details to help you understand how I am going forward with this new project.

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In the 1st grade I was introduced to the alphabet and almost immediately began my lifelong journey of being a wordsmith. Finally, after eighty years I think I have perfected that art. I quickly went from the alphabet to devouring The Hardy Boys book series by the 2rd grade. In the 3rd grade I was reading John Steinbeck books. Learning that quickly was a pure joy. It allowed me to see a world well beyond the one I was living in. I think John Steinbeck gave me my first real dose of empathy, and I am eternally grateful for that.

When my mother abandoned her family I started doing the cooking for my father, brother, and myself. Cooking would become an important part of my life thereafter. It contributed much to allowing me to pay for my college education. I started working in the dormitory cafeteria washing pots and pans and eventually running the entire waitstaff serving about 1500 meals a day. After I left the corporate world I spent 11 years volunteering in a local soup kitchen and homeless shelter. These were some of my most joyful years of my life.

The experience of my college years were indeed joyful. I became friends with someone who taught me to play the guitar and introduced me to folk music. One of my biggest sorrows about going deaf at mid life is that I could no longer play or enjoy listening to Simon & Garfunkel, Dylan, and other folk singers. One of the tragic parts of my life is when the person who introduced me to folk music was killed in Vietnam! This post is about my joys, so I won’t go any further with that thought,

There were some joyful times after college when I started my corporate work life. It would be the first time in my life that I would enjoy LOMO (life on my own). It was just my dog “Sam” and I living as a couple of bachelors for almost 13 years.

My married life that I started when I was about 40 years-old was indeed a tale of two realities. There were many stressful moments but there was also many moments of joy. Because of my struggles I just couldn’t believe that anyone would ever love me. That love may have faded toward the end, but I am grateful beyond words that my wife was there to help me with my struggles of becoming profoundly deaf.

My wife died after a ten-year period of my being primarily a caregiver. Those were stressful years but they were also strewn with many moments of joy.

I have been in my RetCom (retirement community) mode for five years now. There have been constant struggles in trying to be “social” but I am most grateful that these years as they allowed my artsy side to shine beyond belief. I even shocked myself as to how far I have advanced in being the creative person I have always wanted to be.

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I am closing out this post with an official announcement of “RetCom Life on the Margins” shortened to RetCom Life as a special project. It will be a series, basically in chronological order of my five years of struggles and joys in living closely to 200+ other elderly citizens.

Initially, RetCom Life posts will happen every Friday going forward, but that may change depending on how things go.