The Farm

Husband and I have been officially retired for 11 years. It was with careful planning and much research that retirement life started relatively early for us. I was 55 years old and my husband was 60 when this adventure started.

My official job was not anything glamorous. I worked in a school cafeteria, an official lunch lady. My husband worked in insurance, handling and supervising claims. Walking away from these positions was definitely liberating.

My MMD diagnosis was a challenge

I was diagnosed with myopic macular degeneration (MMD) approximately 5 years into retirement, which definitely added to the experience. The positive side of it would be I had a truly dedicated driver for any of my eye appointments; he was always available. The negative would be having to deal with this annoying eye challenge.

Thankfully, I have found the "sweet spot" and have not had an injections since the spring of 2021. Of course, I'm always aware that this could change at any moment.

Keeping busy in retirement

As most people who retire do, we keep busy. My daily life revolves around lunch dates with friends, Bible study groups, Bunco fun, painting, and drawing, just to name a few. Husband is deeply involved with the Scouts and simply loves camping and hiking and daily walks with our silly standard poodle, Millie.

Let's not forget reading; I love murder mysteries, often reading from my Kindle app. Husband reads lots of science fiction faster than things are even written. Our days are full.

Visiting faraway family

Our children are all grown and living on their own, and they add to our busy schedule. Our oldest — our daughter — and her little family live on some land, a little farm about 3 hours away. Visiting those grandchildren living as far away as they do is a challenge.

This year, we have made a decision to help keep us more involved with them. We have purchased adjacent acreage to be closer to them, making it easier to visit them. All this to say, we have added 57 acres of land to our portfolio.

Taking a walk

This is where the MMD jumped front and center into my world. One beautiful spring morning, it was a great day to take a walk around this newly acquired land to see what was to be seen. Let me preface this moment by saying the ground is mostly natural — no roads or sidewalks to be seen. The lay of the land rises and falls, with trees and assorted shrubs all around. And thus began our walk.

Preparing for depth perception troubles

Very quickly, it became apparent how this walk of mine would go. With the uncertainty of the ground below my feet, navigating was definitely a challenge for me. My myopic macular degeneration creates a nuisance of itself, making it so hard to distinguish the rises and falls of each step. I found myself clutching my husband's hand and constantly looking down at the unknown ground.

My depth perception was at its worst, to put it mildly. By the time we had completed a shortened walk around the place, I quickly made a decision: Adding walking sticks in the future will definitely be a necessity for safety's sake.