Summary and Implications

Abstract

It is appropriate that we begin the concluding chapter with the story of Adelaide Williams, who as wife, mother, and nurse, gave of herself and moved into retirement with no trauma. She provides a model of moving into the upper years with a perspective and a sense of humor. With little education beyond high school, she has insight about her husband and sons, and like our other nurses—or for that matter, nearly all our sample—knows she has earned some years of rest and recreation:

“I retired last year at age fifty-six. There are a couple of reasons I retired. The main reason is that my husband is ten years older than I am, so he’s been retired for about almost three and a half years. If I worked until I was sixty-two, he would be seventy-two. I’ve always worked, even when my children were smaller, but I never worked full time when they were small. I waited until they went to school before I considered working more, and we never needed a babysitter or anything. I worked twenty-one years, eleven p.m. to seven a.m., so that we wouldn’t need a babysitter. I worked in the labor and delivery room, which is hard work. There’s no routine, you know.