My husband was 65 years old, and planning on retiring from work.
- He spent the last 40 years working as an HVAC technician and he was getting tired.
I could see that he was uncomfortable with the idea of no longer working, but he had reached the pinnacle of his profession. Our son, who was also an HVAC technician, was upset about his father retiring. For 25 of the 40 years that he had been an HVAC technician, he was also the owner of the HVAC company. Our son had grown up in the HVAC business and he was one of the top HVAC technicians in his father’s company. When my husband retired, he asked our son if he wanted to buy the business. He would work with him for the next two years while our son learned the business, and he would take a check instead of our son paying for the business. At the end of the two-years, he would be happy to come back if there was an emergency, but he was hoping to break completely free of the business. Our son loved the offer, and he couldn’t wait to get started. Six months later, my husband announced his retirement to everyone in the HVAC company and told them that our son would take over the business. Everyone was glad with the decision about who was going to be running the company. It was his last day of work, and I called to tell them that our furnace had quit working. It became a running joke in the HVAC company for the next couple months when they realized that the HVAC technician was taking care of everybody’s HVAC equipment except his own.