The Sensual Retiree by Gordon Smith
Joan’s most renewing encounters from her mid-sixties up into her early nineties. She learns that love for life doesn’t have to die before we do and that women certainly don’t diminish with age. Joan had expected her retirement to be fairly straightforward. She had always associated the word, to “retire” something, as putting it out of harm’s way, out of reach from the rest of the world for the rest of its time on earth. She rather relished in ideas of this isolation, associating it with the effortless simplicity of relaxation. So, undoubtedly, it came as quite a surprise when things didn’t go to plan. With the premature death of her husband, Phil, so early on into her retirement Joan packed up the family home and moved everything she owned into a retirement village on the coast, intending on living the rest of her days on earth like a ghost, well and truly forgotten by everyone else. Well and truly “retired”. She had expected to give up, living day by day eating cups of liquid pudding and reading old books. What she hadn’t expected was to meet a string of distinguishing people in that very place that would make giving up a little more difficult than she had planned. From a retired nun, a Hollywood producer or a series of prudent friends that would later become wistful lovers. These compelling encounters help Joan reclaim an appetite for passions she hadn’t thought about in decades. Joan’s life in retirement will be anything other than straightforward.