Retirement: Anything but boring

Life after work: Anything but boring

By Julie Cazzin on June 20, 2014
Estimated reading time: 1 minute

Curtis retired a year earlier than anticipated and have enjoyed every minute since.

Curtis & Jo-Ann Caissie Lasalle, Ont. (Photograph by Brent Foster) — Curtis & Jo-Ann Caissie of Lasalle, Ont. (Photograph by Brent Foster)

Curtis Caissie, 61, retired two years ago after working for 35 years at the local waste water management plant. “I retired a year earlier than anticipated and have enjoyed every minute since,” says Curtis, who spends a lot of his time visiting his kids and grandkids who live a block away. Curtis’s wife Jo-Ann, a nurse, was more apprehensive about retiring. “I’m a workaholic and only had two weeks off every year, so I was really afraid of being bored,” says Jo-Ann.So last December, when Jo-Ann finally left her nursing job, the couple had a year of activities planned out to keep them busy. “We went to Los Cabos in February with my parents, and that was fun,” says Jo-Ann. “We then did two Caribbean cruises and loved meeting people from around the world.” Right now, Jo-Ann is enrolled in yoga and pilates classes and she and Curtis are preparing to spend a leisurely summer at their cottage outside Gravenhurst, Ont. “My kids and grandkids will be spending time with us there, which is great,” says Curtis. The best part has turned out to be what Jo-Ann’s father pointed out years ago. “I can sleep in every morning and listen to everyone else start up their cars for work,” says Jo-Ann. “That was especially wonderful during this past harsh winter. It made retirement that much more welcome for me.”