I am 72 and have done some voluntary counselling for the past 12 years or so, along with normal freelance private counselling. The lockdown has given me time to consider my future and I am thinking of giving up the voluntary work. It is worth about £90.00 per week so I feel that I have put something back for quite a long time. There is still a shred of guilt there for considering giving up and keeping the small amount of private paid work. However the paid work provides enough money for me to pay for a modest holiday for myself and my husband where we hire a lovely cottage by the sea for 10 days and another smaller one for three nights, This enables us to get our children and grandchildren together for a long weekend once a year and then the two of us stay on for the rest of the 10 days.
I have loved having this lockdown time quietly at home with my husband and my previously very busy life seems less inviting than it did. Am I being really selfish? My husband still works in our small building business regularly and at his own pace but in two years we would both like to be retired to spend more time together.
Good Morning Saturday 3rd June 2023