Retirement Rocks

About the Book

Retirement ROCKS is an insightful case study of the Golden Age that offers both great new opportunities and deep, heartbreaking challenges. Since June 2007, the author and her gringo have embarked in this stage with enthusiasm and zest: they moved to a small retirement home and experimented with activities and relationships that fit their interests and abilities. Retirement ROCKS because it can be incredibly rewarding and adventurous as we leave behind the normal worries of child-rearing and professional pressures, and it ROCKS because it will inevitably bring the disappearance of treasured loved ones and the health decline that we all must face.

This autobiographical personal monograph pictures the daily routines of Maria and Bill in their late sixties and early seventies, detailing the specifics of adapting to their new environment. It has humor and pathos. The family and friends relationships reflect universal themes. It includes travel journals of their world explorations (Scandinavia, Mediterranean, Russia, China, and more), as well as practical examples of their activities and their choices. It will provide entertaining, informative, and useful reading for those approaching and those benefiting from the technological medical advances which have afforded us this unprecedented gift of a long life and a rich old age.

About the Author

Dr. Maria H. Koonce first came to East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, from Uruguay with an Exchange Student Fulbright Scholarship. In her first week there, she met Bill, her Gringo, and both their lives changed course. They married and had their first child in Uruguay but returned to the United States to continue their education. She became an educator in the areas of foreign languages and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), teaching in secondary and higher education institutions.

In 1976, Bill and Maria, with their two children, moved to Florida. Maria earned a Doctor’s Degree, became an adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University, and was appointed coordinator of the Adult ESOL program in Broward County. She has also represented the county in the Florida State Practitioners Task Force since its inception in 1996. This opened many doors for her as consultant, trainer, translator, and author. Since they retired in 2007, Maria and Bill embraced their golden age, moving to a retirement community in Cocoa, undertaking a vibrant lifestyle full of new challenges, including worldwide travel and adventure.