Retirement Unearths Pleasant Surprises / Unexpected Twists in Retirement Life Lead to Fulfilling Dreams and Enjoying Passions

By DEBORAH RIDER ALLEN

What are your dreams for retirement? Many retirees say that what they have ended up doing came from some planning, some learning, part passion and part circumstance.

When Phillip Arnest retired from commercial art in 1986 he and his wife, Scottie, moved to Westmoreland County and rented the house where Phillip was born. It was there he began painting. “I converted the maid’s quarters into a studio,” said Phillip, who had not picked up a palate and paint brush since just after World War II when he studied at the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington.

As he painted daily, his wildlife art began to gain notice. His work has been showcased in art shows, galleries and waterfowl shows, and a print hangs in the Kinsale Museum. He has sold about 200 pieces. Today his easel sits in a bedroom that has been converted to a studio/den where he listens to classical music while he paints. Today the couple lives at Westminster Canterbury in North Side Richmond, and his paintings adorn the walls of their apartment as well as some of the public areas of the community. And many pieces are in the homes of other residents who have purchased his work.

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Scottie Arnest’s passion was not tapped into until she and Phillip moved to Westminster Canterbury. During their marriage – now going on 59 years – they had planned and saved for the day they would be able to move into the retirement community. “My mother moved to Westminster Canterbury and lived here for 18 years,” said Scottie. “Both of us often said it would be great if we could do for our kids what she had done for us by moving here.” The couple moved in April 2006.

Word soon spread of Scottie’s talent with flowers. While raising her two children she had worked with several garden clubs and a florist and did arrangements for Mount Vernon. “When we moved to Westminster Canterbury I had no earthly idea that there was even a need for flower arranging or that I would be involved,” said Scottie, who has a degree in merchandising and worked at Richmond’s Miller & Rhoads, The Red Cross and as a partner in a gift shop. “I used to walk with my mother at Westminster and she would point out the flower arrangements and tell me who had done it, but I never related that to myself. Now it has become about 90 percent of my volunteer time.”

Scottie keeps two very large and one smaller flower arrangement going year round. The arrangements are placed in public spaces throughout Westminster Canterbury. Scottie uses the community’s flower room to fashion the creations that she makes from fresh flower donations and recycled flowers from parties or memorial services. She also works in the community’s Echo Shop.

Phillip says the only drawback of moving to Westminster Canterbury is he now has less time to paint. “Someone is always calling to do something which is great. But it does not leave me as much time to paint because I have so much going on,” he said.

“Our retirement and living here is beyond my wildest dreams. I cannot think of a happier existence and better care situation. I truly think we are blessed,” said Scottie.

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David and Anne Johnson had set a plan for what they were going to do in retirement – travel and mission work. They decided that after visiting their son, who was a Baptist missionary journeyman. “Our son spent two years in Africa after college and we visited him for a month in Botswana. When we retired we wanted to go back as volunteers,” said David.

The couple, who has been married 55 years, moved to the Sussex Square community in 1986. In February 1993 when David retired from his data processing and computer security position with Ethyl Corporation, they began to plan their travels. That May they packed their bags and spent four weeks in Ecuador. Then in August they took off for Botswana and worked for four months at a nonprofit.

Upon their return to the States they were looking toward their next adventure when David’s mother became ill. She eventually moved to Lakewood Manor in Richmond, where David could help care for her. After David’s mom died, Anne’s mother became ill and for the next 11 years Anne helped care for her in Arlington. “We had thought we would be traveling a lot and doing quite a lot of volunteer work overseas and we ended up taking care of our parents,” said David.

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So the couple took short day trips and focused their attention on activities with Derbyshire Baptist Church and volunteer work at the International Learning Center in Rockville. Anne does water aerobics at the YMCA and quilts and sews. David plays tennis with the county senior’s group and will mark his 57th year with the Boy Scouts.

Although their travel plans were delayed, the Johnsons have managed to take some 21 trips – the latest being Savannah, Ga., with Elderhostel in February. But the experience with their parents has changed their perspective of retirement. They are putting their house on the market and will be moving to a retirement community close to two of their children and four grandchildren. (Their third child and two grandchildren live in Texas.) Their new place in Ashby Pond in Ashburn, Va., has a swimming pool for Anne, and they both plan on getting involved in the church their children and grandchildren attend.

Even though this is not the path they planned for retirement, the Johnsons look forward to spending time with their family. “Taking care of our parents was not what we had anticipated for retirement,” said Anne. “For that reason we will move to a retirement home ourselves where we can be close to our children but not be a burden on them.”

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Financial planning was something that Dr. Dick Burch and his wife, Frances, did to plan for their retirement. When he retired from his practice as a pediatrician in 1998, his partners bought out his part of the business and set him up with medical benefits.

But Frances says they really did not have an idea about what retired life would bring. “Both of us had parents who never retired,” she says. Her father was a dentist and worked until he was 84, and Dick’s mother was a nurse who worked until her middle 80s. “We did not have a model for retirement so we did not think or plan what we were going to do.”

“I did not have any idea of what retirement life would be like except not having to get up and go to work,” said Dick, whose mother lived to be 105. With that longevity in his family, Dick and Frances decided that instead of moving to a retirement community, they would make an “interim move” to a new house in CrossRidge, an age- restricted, gated community for people 55 and older. They moved in a year and a half ago.

Since retiring Dick has reconnected with a passion for growing orchids and has a greenhouse in his garage. “My mother used to raise orchids and I used to take care of them when she was away. As time went by we had a few around the house. Then I decided to fix a room up in the basement of our old house to grow them and joined the Virginia Orchid Society,” said Dick, who volunteers at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and is a member of a group that calls itself the ROMEO’s (Retired Old Men Eating Out).

Frances and Dick have been married for 52 years and while he worked she raised their three children (they now have four grandchildren) and worked for Kelley Services. For her, retirement has meant getting back in touch with her artistic side. In her 50s she did some painting but in her 60s decided to write. She has had some poetry published and is currently writing a humorous series about life and aging. Every year she attends a writer’s conference for two weeks. She is also teaching English to a family from Africa. “I always liked to write and I often wonder why it took me so long to figure out that this is what I wanted to do,” she said.

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The Burches have also started to travel with Elderhostel – something Frances used to do with a friend for many years. She says that Dick was never interested in going with her before he retired. “Then he finally agreed to go to China with me and he liked it,” she said. “Then I came home one day and he said he had signed us up to go to Africa.”

The Burches both have personal financial planners and they do eventually plan on moving to a retirement community. But for now they are taking what comes and enjoying it. “Retirement is an evolving thing as life is,” said Frances. “And it evolves more quickly after 75 as retirement and aging is all mixed together.”

ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO

MEMO: SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT: RETIREMENT LIFESTYLES

Originally published by Special Correspondent.

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