Thursday, May 15, 2008

May 2008: Mom's Retirement from CMH








My mom got her teaching degree from Western Michigan University, specializing in Spanish.    She was a teacher up until I was born, then she quit and stayed home with me until my father passed away in 1985.   Then, my Mom worked as a clerk at Community Mental Health Youth Services for 19 1/2 years.    There were a few years where she worked many hours of overtime, sometimes until 9 p.m.    She found out after retirement that Social Security bases your monthly checks on the top 5 consecutive years of work, so this overtime helped her out.    

She got to the point in life where she knew she was ready for retirement, so she decided she needed a new chapter in life.   Her co-workers gave her a nice retirement party with food, cake, and beverages.  They made her a scrapbook of her time at CMH.  They gave her many gift cards, a horn for her new bike, and a funny Michigan bike plate that said "Hottie".  

She bought a three wheeled bike shortly after retirement, intending to use it down in Florida.