{"id":1803,"date":"2016-06-13T04:26:54","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T11:26:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wordpress\/?p=1803"},"modified":"2016-06-13T04:26:54","modified_gmt":"2016-06-13T11:26:54","slug":"today-is-his-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=1803","title":{"rendered":"Today Is His Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Today is Dad\u2019s birthday. He would have been 93.<\/p>\n

My dad was my role model. He taught me that true leaders are servants, that giving is a lifestyle and that real encouragers show up when we deserve them least.<\/p>\n

Today, I\u2019m thinking about what Dad taught about retirement. Because of a late-in-life financial setback, he reached age 65 with no savings. None.<\/p>\n

But since he and mom had planned to retire at that age, he quit his job as a Real Estate salesman in Phoenix and moved to the resort community of Ruidosa, New Mexico. How did he pull it off?<\/p>\n

Dad found part-time jobs to supplement his social security income but leave time for the leisure activities he and mom had planned. In Ruidosa he delivered flyers for the racetrack and worked as a convenience store cashier.<\/p>\n

And Dad was an optimist. When Mom\u2019s health deteriorated and they had to move to Lubbock, he found interesting and fun things they could do\u2014both drove cancer patients to doctor appointments, and my parents ended their lives as activity directors at a retirement village.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the end of his story. After 68 years of marriage, Mom died, and the next year Dad (now 85) surprised us with his plan to remarry. He and Doris were giddy with love\u2014I officiated at their Valentine\u2019s Day wedding\u2014and they spent the next year and a half enjoying each other and serving their neighbors.<\/p>\n

My World War II veteran dad went to be with Jesus on Memorial Day, 2010<\/a>, just two weeks short of his 87th birthday. He left many legacies, among them a model for his youngest boy, showing me how one\u2019s last years can be his best years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is Dad\u2019s birthday. He would have been 93. My dad was my role model. He taught me that true leaders are servants, that giving is a lifestyle and that real encouragers show up when we deserve them least. Today, I\u2019m thinking about what Dad taught about retirement. Because of a late-in-life financial setback, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1805,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1803\/revisions\/1805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}