During my more than seven decades on Earth, retirement was not something I thought much about. I knew old people pondered it, some with joy, others with sadness, a few with fear. For me, the cessation of labor was something far off in the future, and not something to worry about!
Recently, like a pesky Florida mosquito in the dark of night, the word started buzzing around in my head. That “pestification” of that far-off-future from my youth has usurped my present! Like it or not, I’m old! Plans and ideas of what my retirement might look like fill my head most of my waking hours!
I don’t feel old, though my knees beg to differ! I’m a woodworker and cabinet maker, both for the mission and as a side-business. Often, I have to get down on the floor to install drawer slides and other hardware. When I finish a job, sometimes I lay there contemplating the choices of my new reality. Would it be easier to stay on the cold concrete and die? Or, should I endure the pain and struggle back to my feet. I know that exercise in agony will be repeated over and over in the coming weeks and years? It is a quandary that I deal with, daily! Even my favorite recliner has developed a strong gravitational pull that I find harder to escape from!
Fifty-three years ago, I broke my patella playing basketball. The doctor convinced me the best option was a patellectomy. He cut out the kneecap and sewed the upper and lower tendons together. I did not like that choice, but I did not want to deal with arthritis in old age, either. He promised that removing the damaged bone would stop the disease from invading the joint, later. I submitted to his knife! He cut out one small bone and, in the cutting, severed all the power that made my leg strong. I adapted to my weak knee, somewhat. For decades, most times, I climbed stairs and ladders by sending my left knee up the incline first. It did the lifting and then I pulled my right knee up after it. The surgery messed up my balance, too. A measly five pounds in my hand made it impossible to climb normally.
My long-ago doctor lied about the disease, too! In my antiquity, arthritis came anyway. One year ago, I got my right knee replaced. I asked the doctor to put in a new patella when he did the operation. He couldn’t, he said, because he needed that small piece of missing bone on which to attach the implant. The surgery did help! My pain is less, but I still have a weak knee.
Shortly after my right knee replacement, pain on the left intensified. It had protected and supported my right knee for decades. In doing so, it worn itself out! Now, it is the one that causes me anguish. A second replacement is in my future, I know, but I’m not willing to risk my climbing leg, just yet!
Bad knees are part on my retirement equation. We bought a house in North Carolina with a big shop. Cessation of labor is not in my future, as long as I can help it. My observation is that when people stop doing something they love, they die! With my new shop, it looks like I will have more days on the floor. I will also have more times of struggling back to my feet. Even that, I think, will be easier when ten and twelve hour workdays come to an end.
For years we have been told, “Don’t follow your kids when you retire! They will move away leaving you stranded.” Cody and Beka can’t go back to Papua New Guinea because of health reasons. They have joined the member care team and will base out of Louisburg, North Carolina. We are moving to Warrenton, NC to be near them. I want to make it plane that we are not chasing after our kids! Instead, we are pursuing our grandsons!! It has been fun to have the boys close to us these last few years. Besides, we know a seven-year-old and a four-year-old will never, on their own, bail out on Grammy and Grandpa!
Not so great knees and great grandsons, two good reasons to consider retirement! June 1st is my last official day working with the mission. It will be exciting to see what God has for us as we start retirement. This has been a journey that started over 50 years ago. Though I am stepping down, I will keep stepping up as long as my knees bear the challenge!
Writings By Phil 
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