When the time came to close the family business, which we operated in our community for 44 years, we hated the idea. What would we do with our lives? The 6 days a week job we had gave us a reason to get up each day—a purpose in life. Sure we had a wonderful family life besides the STORE, but everything was intertwined. We worked with our parents, brother, sister-in-law and our children. The people who worked for us became our extended family. When my brother's health forced us to sell what had been our home away from home...the reality hit hard. It seemed impossible to realize that we no longer had to go to the STORE. We were only 59 and 56 years old and never imagined retiring!

We had to find an outlet for our need to be useful. After working side by side for all those wonderful years, we needed a purpose for our lives. We had both been involved in volunteering in our church and synagogue, Boy and Girl Scouts, Kiwanis, League of Women Voters, our children's school but never seemed to have enough time for everything we wanted to do. Now, without anything we really had to do—what would we do???

A friend asked us to attend a meeting at our Retired Senior Volunteer Program's office. This phone call gave us a new start on the rest of our life. For 4 cold January mornings, we once again had to get up. We rode the bus talking to people to obtain their views on how the city bus system could be improved.

Through RSVP, wonderful and challenging opportunities opened up. During the last 10 years, we have been given a chance to mentor young people in schools and take pictures at the DMV. We have even started another generation volunteering. We take our 1-year-old grandson to volunteer at the information desk at City Hall. The list of tasks goes on and on. We feel so very fortunate that we can give back a little to our wonderful community.