Ten Year Plan
When Robert & I met 11 years ago, retirement was not a
topic we thought about or discussed. After all, we were in our prime and were
focused on the here and now, on getting our families together and on becoming a
part of the community. Our motto was, and still is, “Work hard, Play hard”.
Robert put in countless hours and achieved his goal of
becoming an Executive Sous Chef, which came with many more hours in the
‘kitchen’ than at home. I woke most mornings, only to reach over to an empty
pillow on his side of the bed as he had already gone to work. I would struggle
to remember if he woke me to say, “Goodbye baby, I love you” before he left.
Invariably, he did just that every morning, even if I was still sleeping. One
day in 2011, after 28 years with The Hyatt, Robert called to tell me that he
was going to retire. It certainly wasn’t that he couldn’t keep up, but did
realize that it was time to slow down and focus on his dream of making music a
bigger part of his life.
He searched for the perfect job to meet his obligations for
his son, who is still in school, and found a job as a cook. Being a cook all of
those years ago in Maui was how he began his journey, and now he would be able
to focus again on why he got into the hospitality industry which is the love of
cooking. The agreement with Chef was
that he wouldn’t try to take his job, and that Chef would work around Robert’s
work schedule. This plan worked perfectly until the very end.
Robert began thinking again of real retirement and put in
his 15 month notice at work as his son would be graduating in 2015. We laughed
and laughed, and talked of how he would play solo gigs at venues during the
day, and with Kona in the evenings. Then on Tuesday, June 17th we
talked of what we would both do when we retired. With another good ten years of
my career left, I asked what he thought of retiring in Hawaii in 2025. I wish
that I had taken a picture of his face as he said, “Really? We can move back to
Hawaii?!” We made a decision not to share our plan with anyone until we had a
chance to talk with Kawehi, his darling sister. He asked me if I could really
bear getting rid of lots of ‘stuff’ and we both realized that ‘stuff’ should
never stop us from realizing our dreams.
On Wednesday morning, as I was at my desk at work, I
received a text from Robert that said, “Dicing fresh mango, and thinking about
our new ten-year plan. I love you!” It was then that we started our text count
down. 3,650 Days to go on Wednesday morning, June 18th. As we were out at Ronnie John’s Saturday
evening, I overheard Robert telling our friends about our ten-year plan to move
home to Hawaii with such a sense of excitement. I smiled and said I didn’t
think we were going to tell anyone yet, to which he replied that he was so
excited he had to share the news. We continued our conversation about our
ten-year plan late Saturday into the wee hours of Sunday at the local Waffle
House over decaf coffee and waffles with scrambled eggs.
As we woke and got ready for church the next morning, I sent
myDarlin’ Robert one last text message. 3,646.
I am so grateful that Robert and
I had these precious conversations, and that I was able to see the excitement
in his eyes as he looked to our future. It is these ordinary moments of life
that we look back upon and realize just how extraordinary they really are.
#KeepLookingUp
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