When people ask me what I do for a living, I have now reached the age (almost 64) when I can say “I am retired.” Like many people, COVID-19 forced me into early retirement, but it took a while for me to realize that my main writing work was not coming back, and it took some time beyond that for me to get to an age that is somewhat “respectable” for retirement (at least in my mind). I should say that the Hebrew phrase “yatzati le’pensya” feels so much better than “I am retired” (pensya is a Hebraicized version of “pension”). Hebrew uses a very active verb to describe this stage of one’s life: yatzati – “I went out,” suggestive of movement and new opportunities. “I am retired” is suggestive of one-foot-in-the-gravism.
Growing scientific evidence indicates that it behooves retirees to include volunteerism among the new opportunities awaiting them. For example, a 2020 study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine entitled “Volunteering and Subsequent Health and Well-Being in Older Adults,” collected data from 12,998 seniors to study whether volunteering increased well-being. Among the results: those who volunteered more than 100 hours per year were more likely to be optimistic and less likely to experience hopelessness. According to the study, along with exercise and good nutrition, volunteering should be on the list of things that gerontologists routinely recommend to their patients.
My wife, Sarah, is a big believer in volunteering. One year, when we were still living in Givat Zeev and she was between jobs, she volunteered at the local public religious school to help children with their English. Sarah committed to volunteering every Monday between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., and rain or shine she was there. Currently, Sarah has been volunteering at a bridal boutique run by a nonprofit organization called “Women’s Spirit,” which is “dedicated to helping women survivors of abuse find employment and achieve economic independence.” (The organization has a separate track of volunteers who act as long-term personal mentors for women suffering from economic abuse; see www.ruach-nashit.org.il/home-1). The boutique’s wedding gowns are donated by Israeli designers, brides purchase them at a steep discount (dresses that can cost several thousand dollars are typically sold for $700), and the income helps Women’s Spirit.
Sarah has more flexibility in this volunteering than she had as an English tutor. She chooses a three-hour block (and this need not be the same each week), and during each of the three hours a bride (accompanied by her mother or a friend) arrives to look at dresses. Sarah loves making brides happy and she loves the win-win aspect of the boutique (the bride saving a lot of money and the money going to a good cause) — plus she can watch “Say Yes to the Dress” as a type of continuing education!
When it comes to volunteering, my attitude seems to be that I wait until I can no longer avoid it. In practice this is rather informal volunteering with just one person at a time. My current volunteering gig began serendipitously, just like my previous stints at volunteering. On my frequent bicycle trips between my home in Ra’anana and my son’s in Herzliya, I would often see a person sitting alone on a bench. Even on relatively cold days, there she sat. Finally, my curiosity got the better of me, and it turned out to be a Holocaust survivor named Shula Zarbov. I began to visit with Shula on her bench. Several months ago, I decided that I would deliver a home-baked challah every Friday to Shula’s home, and our visits take place then. Shula is fairly miserable at her assisted living facility away from her beloved Tel Aviv, where she lived for 60 years near the beach, but her sons were adamant that she could no longer live alone. I hope that my challah and my company cheer her up a little.
Dear Reader: Even if you’re not a traditional volunteer like my wife, I’m here to say that there are a lot of small volunteer opportunities right around you — people who could use some company or a helping hand. All you have to do is open your eyes and heart and donate some of your time, and it can even be at your convenience. In doing so, to quote from the conclusion of that 2020 study, you will be “simultaneously enhancing health and society.”
