This is the kind of story that is like, where do I begin? A retirement party? Celebrating both Lynn and I retiring in the same year? Lynn had been planning a retirement party for at least a year. Many of our dear friends hit the same milestone in 2023 and would be celebrating with us. This would not be a typical one night party, but rather a days long celebration with friends and events leading up to a crescendo in an opera that she set in motion months in advance.
Her official retirement date would be August 10, 2023, which is her milestone birthday marking retirement. That would fall on Thursday. Activities would begin the day before on Wednesday and go through the weekend.
To start things off one of her closest friends from Ohio, Sharon, would be arriving on Wednesday the 9th and staying with us through the weekend. The evening of the 9th would be her professional retirement party hosted by the law firm at which she spent 33 years. Her entire career.
Wednesday 10/9. Sharon arrives and Lynn picks her up from the airport! And the celebration starts as soon as they arrive back home.
Later in the afternoon we headed downtown to Roosters for a cocktail before the retirement party, which was to be at another restaurant in the same building. The same building where her law firm is located. After a little pregame we jump right into the retirement party and I was thrilled to see how well the firm respects and treats people. This party was all about Lynn (obviously) but also about appreciating the contributions to the firm that she had made over the years. I was able to meet some of the managing partners and hear first hand how appreciated she was and how she would be missed. They really love her there, and for good reason.
After the office party we had reservations at one of our favorite restaurants in Charlotte, The Good Year House. The chef/owner is well known and one of his claims to fame is that he won the challenge against Bobby Flay on the popular cooking show. The cuisine is excellent and the atmosphere is chill. The whole premise behind The Good Year House is that it is located in and old mill house in what we call NoDa (short for North Davidson). This area was once the home of a large textile mill and the houses in the area were all built to house the employees. In a "good year", meaning the mill did well and employees received a little extra, folks would add a room to the house for extended family. The Good Year House has multiple rooms representing different decades. There is also an extensive outdoor dining area. Lynn loves this place so there was no question about where we wanted to go to celebrate.
The next day was Lynn's birthday and official retirement day. She actually went into the office! If only just to make sure she turned in badges, computer stuff, etc. She was back home before noon and by that time her long time friends (like from high school) from Ohio, and her friend from Atlanta, Karen, had arrived in town. They were going to meet us at the marina for an afternoon out on the boat. She arrived home to this greeting!
We met the rest of the crowd at the marina and spent the rest of the afternoon out on the lake. We stopped at one of our favorite restaurants on the north end of the lake for refreshments, then enjoyed a nice sunset. I think Lynn was leaning into the retirement thing pretty heavily at this point.
The next day we were back out on the lake and joined by our good friend from Charlotte, Stacy. Greg, Sharon's husband, had also arrived by then.
The next day, Saturday, was the retirement party! Wow! We are so fortunate to have so many good friends to celebrate with. Over the course of the day we had over 100 people attend. What a great time!
One of my check list items was to make sure Lynn's She Shed was finished on time. Check that box!
As the day progressed the party got going! What a great group of friends!
And so the next day I served omelets for the folks staying at our house. My mother, brother, and sister also came over. Lynn, of course, served her famous Bloody Marys. Then we were back out on the lake for the afternoon.
At this point it was time to say good bye for now to our out of town friends, and for the neighbors and local friends to go back to the day to day. After 4 days of celebrating I think Lynn and I were ready for some R&R ourselves!
So after all of the celebrations we entered a new chapter in our lives. While I had been retired since March, now Lynn also was officially retired. New adventures on the horizon!
Please feel free to leave a comment in the comment section below. Also, I can be reached at Rocky@Rocklyns.com should you feel the need to reach out.
No comments:
Post a Comment