Found the meanings of their lives, in, giving back to their, community here! Off of the Newspapers, translated…
The eighty-four-year-old Chen, along with his wife, the eighty-one-year-old Chen-Hsiao, worked in the car parts manufacturing industries, after their over thirty years of work experiences, they’d retired, and, poured their hearts and souls into joining in the volunteer teams of the Hsinchu Cathay Hospital, both had, accumulated more than twenty years’ worth of volunteer experiences, more than 5,000 hours of volunteer services provided, received the gold medals for their dedication as hospital volunteers from the Department of Sanitation Welfares. The two elders told, that planning out the retirements, filling up their schedules, staying busy, that’s what keeps them from falling ill, and not getting bored with retirement. Chen told, that he and his wife, after they were wed, they’d, started working at the small factory plant that’s owned by his family, worked in manufacturing, assembling the car parts, selling the assembled parts to the trading companies. They’d worked for thirty years nonstop, and their own children are all established, in their, separate fields of expertise, but, nobody was there to take over the manufacturing plant after they planned to retire, so they’d, sold the factory, and retired.
After retirement, the elders in their sixties then, are faced with, massive amounts of time they don’t know what to do with, and decided to give back to the community, first, they’d gone to the volunteer training courses at Tzu-Chi Hospital, and, shortly thereafter, they’d started working at the new Hsinchu branch of Cathay Hospital, which was looking for volunteers for their hospital, the husband and wife signed on, and volunteered for twenty years to date.
“It’s not strenuous volunteering, the more we give, the healthier we feel”, Chen told, he and his wife are on the first floor, assisting the patients to fill out the forms, to take their blood pressures, or to show them how to get to the different department for treatment, delivering of the wheelchairs, and, as the support for the medics when they needed something. Both came to the agreement, that if they’d selected the retirement path of volunteering, then, they will, stick to it, never absent from the posts, never felt tired.
the couple, in their, volunteer vests, photo courtesy of UDN.com
Chen-Hsiao recalled, that once she was helping a patient get his blood pressure reading, delivering the wheelchairs, the patient told her, “I see you a lot here, you always took care of me, thank you so very much.”, these few short lines, it’d, touched her deeply, “The happiest thing about volunteering, is hearing that heartfelt thank you from the people we helped out.”
Chen-Hsiao told, that for the first halves of their lives, they’d worked hard for their living, raised the children, “working happy as volunteers, is the station of our bottom half of life after retirement”, it’d made them find that focus in life after retirement, and fulfilled their sense of achievement that they were looking for after they’re no longer in their jobs.
And so, this, is very important, especially for those of us, who are, retiring soon, we need something else, to shift our attention, turn our focus to, because, we won’t be working too long, as we hit retirement age, and, giving back to the community, like this couple had done, is the best way, to stay socialized, to keep our selves, active, in our, elderly years.
Chen: Being Overly Dependent on the Children, it Would Strain the Parent-Children Relationships
“If after you retire, you can’t find that shift of focus in life, we recommend you go an volunteer”, Chen and his wife, Chen-Hsiao used their life experiences, as working as volunteers, it’d reduced the time of being STUCK at home, getting glued to the T.V. it also helps us adjust our mindsets, and find that sense of affirmation that we had formerly received when we were still working, and we are also, involving ourselves, with the goings on of the world around us.
Chen told, that for many, as soon as they’re retired, their health deteriorated quickly, to the point they would have more and more frictions with their loved ones, the reason was, too much time on one’s hands, and not knowing how to put all the extra time you get to good use, if you don’t have hobbies, and new focuses in your lives, you will, start to grow reliant on your own young.
He’d analyzed, as the older generations are retiring, their young are faced with the stresses of work, of buying a home, of marriage, if the elders become too dependent, tagged onto the children, the grandchildren, it would cause the generation gap to get deeper, cause the tensions in the families to rise, and affect the relations of the family members.
And so this, is for all you people out there who are, knocking on retirement, FIND that new focus, that hobby, knitting (not for me), hiking (those of you who enjoy the great outdoors), bird watching, basket weaving, or WHATEVER, find something that you can occupy your time with, or, be like this couple, giving back to the community, that way, you’re able to feel productive, continually, even AFTER you are no longer working for that paycheck, and that way, we the children won’t need to worry about you, that you don’t have anything that occupy you for your free time after the retirement.