A Conversation with Elizabeth
2016
Lucky to be Alive

From:           Elizabeth 
To:             Larry
Sent:           Wednesday, December 14, 2016 8:18 PM
Subject:        Re: R U watching MARS Mini-series on National Geographic
 
Larry,
 
Thanks for your number.  Sounds like you have a plan for retirement!  When I started my last position, which was teaching at a state community college, I had planned to work until age 66, the age when I would become eligible for social security.  I bailed out early though at age 65, but only because I could get Medicare insurance at age 65.  I waited though to file for Social Security because payments are docked fairly steeply for every month you file before full retirement age.  For various reasons, retiring a bit earlier than planned turned out to be a good decision. 
 
One nice aspect for you of returning to live in the Gainesville area is that as you age you will probably have a good social support network closeby among your relatives.  That concerns me somewhat if I choose to stay here, because most social networks are through churches and I don't attend one, and I have no relatives here, but I have none elsewhere that I would choose to live nearby anyway.
 
I don't want to end on a morbid note, but I guess both of us are lucky to still be alive!  My 50th year high school reunion was this year, and the "deceased list" was shocking in its numbers.  Recently I also found out that my freshmen roommate at U of F died about two years ago now, and that was something of a shock.  I still have an apple paperweight she gave me one Christmas.   She became an Army nurse, and I thought she had gone to Viet Nam, and I lost total track of her.  All of my professors who I remember from U of F are now emeritus, if they are still living.  Sadly I found that my favorited humanities instructor passed away two years ago.  He taught in the large auditorium and one day stopped his entire lecture dead cold in total silence because someone was reading the Alligator.  He didn't say a word, and everyone started looking around, "like what's going on."  Some of us in the dorms had a total crush on him, and would do ridiculous things to find out more about him.
 
I don't recall how many classes or years you finished at U of F, and certainly don't know if you fondly or not so fondly remember any of your professors or fellow students.  We met after I had graduated, but I had returned to campus to take some science courses, which had been my original interest in attending college.
 
Elizabeth

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