Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Health is Wealth....

That's a fact whether you believe it or not.

I am not wealthy but I'm surely glad that I'm generally healthy and so is the husband and the little one. To me, that's the most important thing. I know that we all need money to survive our day to day existence but to me, as long as we have what we need then I'm happy.

Just a few days ago I got a message from a former co-teacher. She was telling me the news that 2 of our former co-teachers retired against their wish because of health reasons. Mind you, these 2 teachers [sisters actually] are both of retiring age already. Still, their retirement was kind of 'forced'. If one of them didn't have a life threatening disease, they wouldn't have given up the jobs they had. Just a background, they are both unmarried and with no kids to support and have been working for more than 30 years earning more than what I would consider sufficient to retire comfortably. Still, they retired with nothing to show of the 30 plus years that they actually had jobs.

I don't know if I should pity them or not on their current predicament but looking back on how they lived their lives during those years when they were earning more than they need, I can't really say that I pity them. First, they should have taken care of their health. Sadly, the one who's sick was never mindful of hers when we were teaching together. Her body and choice of food that time showed that. They overworked their bodies by taking in more work than they could handle at that time and failed to put some aside for their future needs.

Anyway, I'm in no position to preach I know. But I'm thankful that I'm realizing these things while I can still take charge of my life and health...unlike them. All they can do now is find something to support them in the twilight of their lives. It just saddens me that they didn't see this coming. Hopefully they can still enjoy the years left in their lives....with or without money.

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