Retirement

When did we retire?

Larry retired from UTK August 2001 but Sharon kept working, teaching classes in the Statistics department at UTK. In one of her classes she met Chaplain Cecil Cook from Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center.

Chaplain Cecil introduced us to the Fellowship Center at Fort Sanders which was "a hospitality house that provides affordable or supportive lodging for patients and their families receiving medical care."

Not long afterwards, Larry started volunteering at the Fellowship Center interacting with patients at one lunch a week. Eventually, Larry became the chef for one day a week. Sharon would join us for lunch.

Chaplain Cecil started the Stephen Ministry program at Fort Sanders with us and ?? others in the first class.

Fast forwarding, Sharon and I became Stephen Ministry Leaders training others to become Stephen Ministers at Fort Sanders and helping Chaplain Cecil to administer the program. Sharon was still teaching Statistics at UTK. ...

So, when did we retire?

In the last week of January 2026, Sharon and Larry were admitted to the University of Tennessee Medical Center after both being knocked out by the flu with Sharon also hit with a double whammy of pneumonia.

OUR RETIREMENT BEGAN!

After a week at UTMC and about five weeks at a rehab center, we moved into assisted living facilities at Knoxville Landing.

Gardening at Knoxville Landing, May 2, 2026.

After getting involved in several of the activities at Knoxville Landing, we were introduced to two of the physical therapists who were stationed there. The occupational therapist, Bradley, suggested that we get involved in a gardening project. After speaking with Jonathan, the chief ??? at Knoxville Landing, the project was defined as replacing a floral garden bed with a vegetable bed.

The slides at the left show the partially cleared bed.

Gardening at Knoxville Landing, June 1, 2026.

Paula drove us over to Stanley's Greenhouse where we purchased 4 Okra, 2 Melon, 6 Tomato, 6 Pepper plants together with Thyme and 2 Echinacea plants. We planted these on June 1.