This week we talk with Brian Giersch, a retired educator. He and his wife not only transitioned into retirement but had a plan B, later in his retirement journey. Brian talks with us about how his entire life changed when he transitioned into Willow Valley Community four years ago. He talks about still living his own life on his terms and engaging in activities within the community.
Guest Co-host: Cecily Laidman: CLaidman@springpointsl.org
Cecily's website: https://springpointsl.org/
Podcast guest: Brian Giersch: dottiep66@gmail.com
Transcription:
Kris Parsons00:04
Welcome to changing the rules, a weekly podcast about people who are living their best life and how you can figure out how to do it too. Join us with your lively host Ray Loewe, better known as the luckiest guy in the world.
Ray Loewe00:19
Everybody, This is Ray Loewe. And this morning, I'm operating out of my own living unit at the Willow Valley Country Club how's at, and I'm here with Cecily Laidman and Brian Giersch. Now we're going to talk a little bit about something interesting, I have no idea but it's gonna, it's going to involve the luckiest people in the world. And the luckiest people in the world are those people that we've defined as those people who invent their own lives, they go out of their way to create a life based on what they want to do. And then they step into it, and they live it under their own terms. And you're going to see today that we have Brian and Cecily both of whom are the luckiest people in the world because they just bolt through life under their own terms. And don't let too much get in the way. The name of our podcast is changing the rules. And this is one of the things that the luckiest people in the world have to deal with, and have to get control of because everybody in our lives throws rules at us. And if you haven't noticed, we went to school. This, this is going to hit home with Brian later, the school's throw rules at us, our parents threw rules at the church, throws rules at us, our jobs, throw rules at us. And you know, when you're living your life under somebody else's rules, guess what, that's not your own life. So the luckiest people in the world have to figure out how to take those rules and make them work for them. So that they maintain the structure of rules, but they maintain it under their own terms. So Cecily has been our co-host for the month of September, and Cecily thank you for doing all the work for me this month. appreciate it.
Cecily Laidman02:08
Oh, Ray, it was my pleasure. You do all the work.
Ray Loewe02:13
And Cecily I met about 10 years ago, she is the chief cook and bottle washer at spring point choice, which up to this point has been my long term care unit, right and Cecily, I have to tell you that once I made the decision to become part of spring point choice, it gave me the confidence to know that I was protected for the rest of my life now and it allowed me then to go back and make some decisions that I felt I needed to make as I go through life to live my life the way I want to. So I will be forever indebted
Cecily Laidman02:52
Of course not. No, it's a great Yeah, and I mean, I changed the rules by doing this in this in this industry. This is a program that does change the rules instead of a wonderful, beautiful community that both of you live in. Some people would prefer to just stay in their home. So I'm kind of a rule changer in that respect. And I'm also just addressing what a lot more people really would like to do. So I thank you, Ray, for being part of the program for as long as you have been.
Ray Loewe03:27
Well it's it's a wonderful program, and it's been and always will be a significant part of my life. So let's introduce Brian over here. Okay, so Brian, the first thing I have to tell you is that my secretary misspelled your name. She has you in my system as brain. Wow. That's a misnomer. Brain Giersch. So I think that puts this in perspective. Okay.
Brian Giersch03:53
Misspellings since sixth grade. it was very clear from that point forward.
Ray Loewe03:59
So let's go back into time a little bit and talk about your previous life as to where you are to kind of set a perspective because Brian's going to tell us Cecily about his journey from where he was at work. And you know, raising kids and all of those great things to where he is now and where he's going. And, Brian, you were a teacher, educator, school principal,
Brian Giersch04:26
I worked for the school system did all the above and then some. My wife and I both graduated in with degrees in education, elementary and secondary. Both of us taught for a short period of time in real classrooms. And shortly into that career, I moved into school administration, probably for 20 plus years school principal for 14 where I really wanted to be towards Personnel Administration. And I worked in a large County school system with 9000 employees, and oh, wow, then my last seven years were staffing 45 elementary schools. And that's really where I wanted to be in the first place. It just took a long time to get there. Dottie worked work through the classroom, seven years of motherhood, reading teacher, then several supervisory positions that were countywide in the same very large County, in Maryland. And she was finally loaned to the state of Maryland to run a statewide early childhood program. She retired from it. So we were both employees of the same school system, for our careers. But when different paths. And we're both plans to retire around 2003, we left Maryland and began retirement number one in eastern North Carolina, where we lived in a development that was locally referred to as Yankee Stadium. When it was developed, it was marketed to both sides of Long Island Sound. And we were Connecticut people, Rhode Island people, Long Island people, Jersey people, and the southerners of Eastern Carolina were glad to see us impounded because they didn't like to see us around. But we had a wonderful retirement there for 15 years. It was almost a waterfront community with canals and docks and marinas. And that kind of stuff.
Cecily Laidman06:42
So we're in North Carolina where was it?
Brian Giersch06:45
if you specifically was it was New Bern, which is the which was the colonial capital of the capital colony. It's about 35 miles inland from the lower Outer Banks. And this is the confluence of a couple of rivers that go to Pamlico sound and then on.
Cecily Laidman07:04
I know Pamlico sound.
Brian Giersch07:07
wasn't the service. We had been sailing on the Chesapeake Bay for decades, had a big cruising sailboat that we took with us to the Carolinas. But we had to go someplace where we keep on sailing and cruising. Newbern was the place. And during that period of time, my mom and dad who were in Pennsylvania, lived and worked in Pennsylvania, had moved from their home. But 50 years into a continuing care community in Media, PA on the southwest side of Philly. And were there for 32 years. Almost all of that was independent living in their apartment. Wow, Dad lived to 100 and a half. So he was there for a long, long time. And over the period of 30 plus years, that they were in their continuing care place. My brother and I both very, very quickly realized the value to them, to our parents being in a place like that, but also the value to us as their offspring, not having to worry about them, or not necessary not to care for them. But just not to have to worry about their care and independent of each other, we both eventually knew that we would be making the same type of decision. I was fortunate that my brother did all the research and probably close to 10 years ago now. He visited I think 17 continuing care places between PA and Florida. And called me one time down the Carolinas Hey, you got to come up to Pennsylvania to take a look at this place, Willow Valley. So my wife and I drove up here one time, and that one time was the deciding factor. We have been aware of other places have been around and in other places. And this place just seems to be like a right fit for us. So
Ray Loewe09:18
So your brother did all your work for you. And he did right he did. Nice, nice guy.
Brian Giersch09:23
And I'm glad for that. And he actually lives here also he moved in here. He's three years younger than myself. But he moved into a year and a half ahead of me. So he's been here about four and a half years. We're now entering year four Willow Valley communities.
Ray Loewe09:41
Can we go back a little bit and talk about the retirement experience and get some insight from you about why you made the decisions that you made. Were they the right decisions Going back in retrospect, would you change things. What we're trying to do here is give people who are thinking about changing into the next phase of their life, some insight as to how to do this.
Brian Giersch10:12
There I did, there are probably two phases of consideration. One was the actual retirement decision of moving into retirement in the first place. And the second would been going from retirement, age to retirement be where we are right now. It's awkward to to to talk publicly about, about the decision to retire. I was in a position that I loved and the position that I had geared my entire career, out of staffing, the 45 elementary schools, very, very large school system, the work was getting harder and harder, it was getting harder as it is right now across the country to find qualified teachers in the quantity that we needed for this very, very large system. And I was putting out longer and longer hours. Where over the seven years that I had this position. First, it was 8 or 10 hour days, and seven years later, it was 16 and 17 hour days, it's trying to keep those all those positions staffed. My wife was two years behind me in her retirement goal, because she had taken off time with the kids. And our plan always had been that we would start working on the same day, and we would retire on the same day. So in my mind, I still had two more years to go. And what was becoming a very, very demanding position, all-consuming position. And somewhere along the way, my wife said you know, you're gonna kill yourself doing this thing. And this is really worth, the risks that you're taking the pressures you're putting on yourself. And I never thought about that I was an organization guy dedicated to the people and that I served an organization that I'm within last year I worked. And leaving early was never a consideration. But when she started talking about Health and Family Welfare, that kind of stuff. I started to recognize the wisdom that may be getting out after 35 years was better than struggling for two more and leaving on the same day after 37. So I did retire early. And that was that that was a game-changer for us. That was not something we had anticipated. It was a plan we had 37 years in the making. And I basically bailed out two years early, she worked two more, I worked part-time between the househusband, and she just loved every minute of those two years. kind of stuff. But as we were approaching her final two years in my retirement, we had to make some decisions about whether we stay in a community that had been home for 35 years. Or you move on and uh it was almost an easy decision to make. We had we moved into a brand new home and a new development where everybody was the same age, children the same age. And everyone knew all the kids on the street knew the parents on the street. But as the decades passed, and the kids disappeared, like the parents must have been doing. We were doing working harder longer and isolating ourselves more. And the sense of community disappeared, a sense of belonging disappeared, we were just focused on our jobs. So we were looking for something that would give us a restoration of who we were enthusiasm for life and begin to explore and do things differently. And that's where we were we discovered that this little development down in New Bern, North Carolina that featuring water and golf and whole tees expatriates from the Long Island Sound area. And there we had an opportunity to reinvent ourselves and if you're talking about changing rules for us, it was life-changing. To be the organization man for 37 years and have an opportunity to define who he wanted to be how we work with how we wanted to structure our time and opportunities for community leadership. huge opportunities. community involvement social and otherwise, recreational. It was a wonderful experience and everyone around us were having similar experiences having just retired from places up north and for fun in the sun, or out of the water or out in the golf course. But as that, as those years became 13,14, and 15, we started, we were probably the first in our social network, in that community to publicly start talking about what's next? And do we really want to stay in the custom home that we built them, and designed that was just really lovely? And stay there forever. Or find a place where much like my mom and dad experienced where our two kids wouldn't have to worry about us. And it was that factor that caused us to start sort of thinking about what should happen next. And it was the concern for our kids my mom is going back a long, long ways. In her probably 40s and 50s spent 15 to 18 years caring first for her mother than for her mother-in-law. And then for her father in law, and it was just continuous out of the home tracks to their to my grandparent's homes to care for them almost on a daily basis. And she had vowed that her two kids, my brother and myself would never have to have that experience. And it was for that reason that back in the 70s. And very early 80s, she started looking for continuing care places. And they were very, very happy where they went. And my brother and I were happy for them. And pleased that we didn't have to go through the ordeal my mom did. So here we move several decades further down the road. And now we're when my wife and I are having those same conversations, what can we do to look out for our children as we age. And thankfully my brother did research, which was great. We then moved into retirement number two coming here. But that was Ray that was a five-year plan. And knowing what we were going to do having to downsize dramatically, from a very large home to what is this as a large apartment. But it required a lot of dispossessing of things we accumulated over decades and decades selling off my boat of 25 years. So that was a tough one. We made up for that here though, because I bought a smaller racing boat and still race on this Susquehanna river with a bunch of old guys from our community and two nights ago got a first, second, second in three races. Okay. Good for you. redefining continuing when we got here is starting all over again, when we moved to North Carolina was starting all over again, and getting involved with that community and its activities and the social networks. And then here 15 years later, doing the very same thing starting all over again, getting involved with activities, getting involved with social networks, creating activities for things that we couldn't find here that we wanted. My wife, for example, tonight, this afternoon we'll be teaching line dancing to a class of 60 line dancers who are all our similar age and where they put up some energy in two hours of series line dancing. I also started a ski club started out of one and then became a ski club of two and this last winter, we were ski club of three. So play that ski club, either grown exponentially.
Ray Loewe19:19
And you know I think that's one of the really interesting things about you and Dottie is that you want to do what you want to do. I mean you can merge yourself in all the activities that are here and there are tons of that. But that's both good and bad in a retirement community. I think I think the thing to do is to make sure you don't lose your identity and that you do what you want to do. And I know we would find it difficult to navigate in here if we didn't have the two of you as our mentors. And I know it's Dottie's job, not yours, but guess what you're in whether you like it or not.
Brian Giersch19:59
We Ray, we all benefit from the people that surround us. And each time we've made a transitional move, whether it was North Carolina or here, you suddenly find yourself surrounded by people who want to welcome you. Include you in their activities introduce you around, make you feel at home. And I don't know if that's just unusual, unusual characteristics of that North Carolina Community and this one, I hope that's true everywhere you go. But our transitions have been easy ones made easy by that by the people who welcome us and make us feel a part of a community that we now call home.
Ray Loewe20:41
Unfortunately, we're getting near the end of our time, Cecily do you have any questions for Brian or comments?
Cecily Laidman20:47
No, I was gonna say it's really interesting hearing your story, Brian? Because it looks like your parents definitely set the example. Oh, absolutely. where you were going and having worked both in continuing care retirement communities, as well as the program I'm in now that's, I would say when I started talking to people if their parents had been in one, and yours, I mean, it sounds exemplary experience. If they had been there for so long, so that must have helped. The other thing I'm, I'd like hearing is, I'm always concerned. I mean, being in this industry, I've noticed that people who work longer live longer, or at least are challenged, and I see your transitions and being able to pick up roots and change again, that revital, it's like starting over again. And that revitalizes you. And so I admire what you and your wife have done and how you, you know, kept it going.
Brian Giersch21:44
I don't want to go back to the very, very beginning of this conversation, where Ray introduced himself and the three of us as the two of you as the luckiest people in the world. My brother actually refers to me as the luckiest person in the world. So the ship is this, that phrases is to be disputed. And one of the reasons is that when we sold our house in North Carolina, and move out 24 hours after we moved out, the new occupant moved in. And 21 days later, that house was flooded by Hurricane Florence and gutted the interior of the house, and had we stayed an extra 21 days or had I forced to negotiate to into stalemate we would have been in that house 21 days later and I would not be sitting here
Cecily Laidman22:38
Okay, you win today you're the luckiest guy.
Ray Loewe22:43
Well, what you got to do Brian is get the LLC after the luckiest guy in the world but you know, there are a whole lot of the luckiest people in the world. And, and different reasonings. Yeah, for different reasons we all create our own path but the important thing is that we create our own paths. And one of the greatest things is being able to hang out with other lucky people. Because you don't get the downers it's life becomes an upper all the way through and and and that's been my experience here and that's been part of the experience that you've helped me grown into. So again before we have to cut off the switch here Do you have any last comments that you want to make?
Brian Giersch23:26
Yeah. Whoever's out there and you have when you look at your glass, always presume your glass is half full. And never look at it as half empty. When people have asked how is my day going, I'm having the best day ever. And I say that all the time is and it sickens my brother because hates to hear but every day is the best day ever. And if it isn't, then you're doing something wrong you need to fix it and make every day something stimulating for you.
Ray Loewe24:00
That's cool. And so thank you for being our guest today. You are definitely one of the luckiest people in the world. I'm not gonna give you the supreme title though, mine is the luckiest guy in the world LLC you don't have that.
Brian Giersch24:14
I'm just the guy that got that tag from his brother on the last flight out of Australia before they shut down Australia 18 months ago so some luck in there too.
Ray Loewe24:26
Yeah and Cecily thank you for a month of wonderful guests and podcast people and for kind of leading this last four weeks where we talked about how people can make this transition and if you haven't gone back and heard any of the past podcasts, we had Margrit Novack on recently we had a young lady from the ACTS communities, Lori Woodward, it's different than you are and Cecily I had some time during the first week to talk a little bit about this whole concept of planning your future and making sure that the glass is half full always. Alright. So Brian, thanks again for being with us. And if you guys will join us. Next week we're going to go into another phase, we're going to be talking uh Bill Hughes is gonna be our co-host. And he's gonna bring in a whole other interesting cadre of people to talk about talk to so, Taylor, thanks for being in the background there and sign us off.
Kris Parsons25:37
Thank you for listening to changing the rules, a weekly podcast about people who are living their best life and how you can figure out how to do that to join us with your lively host Ray Loewe, better known as the luckiest guy in the world.