Retirement Songs of Praise

This is the life.

The chance to visit a museum or two.

A touch of retail therapy.

Becoming a lady who lunches.

SHE SIGHS

The things I'll have time for when I retire.

Today, finding fulfilment after a glamorous life as a model.

The man who retired not once but three times.

And giving up the job you love when you're only in your 30s.

Plus treasured hymns from around the country

and special performances from Tessera and Lara Martin.

How old would you like to be when you retire?

50?

60?

In this difficult economic climate, some people are working till 70.

And even beyond that.

The composer of our first hymn, Basil Harwood,

retired from his job as an organist in 1909, when he was just 50.

But this great hymn reminds us that, from age to age,

God is there to guide us along the way.

Elizabeth and Ralph Howell

had both spent many happy years working as teachers.

We retired in 1995. Ralph was 60.

We wanted to get to New Zealand and hire a camper van

and do wonderful things round there.

The one thing we did manage to do

was to get to New England and see the fall.

-And it was glorious.

-Yeah.

-Glorious, yes.

But their retirement plans changed

when Ralph decided to train to be a vicar.

Ralph started on an ordination course

three years into our retirement.

Three days before he was due to be ordained,

at three o'clock in the morning,

he was thrashing around in bed

and we realised he had had a major stroke.

I just could not, in that time, take it in

and understand why this could possibly have happened.

So it's 12 years on from that stroke now. How are you?

-You can...walk.

-Walk all right.

-Yes, walk a bit.

-But you can't...

-No.

-You have very little...

-Speech.

But Ralph didn't want the stroke to stop all his plans.

Ralph felt that when he was doing his training

that what he would like to do

would be particularly to focus on work with older people.

So we were looking at ways that we might, even with the stroke,

be able to still fulfil that ambition.

CHATTER

We started what we called our not-home-alone lunch,

because it's only for people

who would normally be eating at home alone.

The idea was that it should be

-as close to the family meal as we could make it.

-Yeah.

And we have a very short quiet time

when people can pray if they want to.

So, Ralph, how can you pray if you aren't able to say it in words?

It's...different.

-But it's from your...

-Heart.

And sometimes...

-um...you come along...

-And you can just...

-..holding hands.

And...

..pray and...it's...

I don't know, but it's...lovely.

So, your retirement didn't quite work out as planned?

No, it certainly didn't.

The vision that we had of what we might do

wasn't going to be there,

but obviously God had other plans for us.

And they've been very rewarding.

Retirement seems to be hot news nowadays.

The pension age is going up, so we all have to work longer,

but our household bills are going up, too,

which means that many pensioners are living almost in poverty

as they struggle to make ends meet.

But often it's not a lack of money

that's the greatest challenge in retirement, but a lack of purpose.

CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICK

Yvonne Paul retired nine years ago, when she was 59,

and found that giving up work was rather depressing

after her glamorous life in the world of modelling.

MUSIC: "Girls On Film" by Duran Duran

I started... Oh, it must've been...about 1965.

Um...I was Elizabeth Taylor's stand-in.

Um...my best moment

was being dragged out of a bath by Michael Caine.

And then in...1971, I started my own model agency.

It was very glamorous, it was very glitzy, particularly in those days.

We were invited to premieres, parties, book launches.

I was on TV a lot. I was on The Jonathan Ross Show.

I did the Kilroy-Silk show.

You take the rather unusual step,

you won't actually let them wear fur?

No. We've taken a policy as an agency

and we have 40 models that we don't want to promote fur.

-We think that it's obscene.

-OK. Clare Francis?

'I'd been thinking about retiring for about five years

'before I actually did it.'

I actually sold the agency.

But my Friday in the office was the last Friday

after, I think, about 37 years.

And Monday morning, it was very, very strange

that I didn't have to jump up at 7:30.

It was a complete shock, actually.

I used to say to retired friends, "What do you do all day?"

And they said, "Well, I go shopping or I do the garden

"and I walk the dog." And I'd think, "Yeah, well, I do that, too,

"but it's finished by 10:30 in the morning.

"What do you do the rest of the day?"

I was getting increasingly frustrated...and bored.

And...yes, I think probably depressed as well.

I looked up all sorts of voluntary work.

The one that really attracted me was Great Ormond Street,

because it's such a wonderful organisation

to be even a tiny, tiny part of.

'My job is...ward host.

'The ward I'm on, which is Flamingo, is the Cardiac Intensive Care ward,

'so you might have a child going down

'for major, very complicated heart surgery.'

And some of these operations are eight, ten hours long

and the parents are naturally out of their minds with worry.

'And my job is to...just help and support the parents

'in any way I can.'

-Do they understand?

-My seven-year-old does.

He knows Martha's not well and he's seen her scars.

You know, he knows.

I would say that having the model agency,

when I look back on it now,

I wouldn't say it's a decadent way of life,

but it's a very, um... materialistic way of life,

it doesn't bring many Christian principles into it.

Whereas working at Great Ormond Street, seeing...

I mean, they're not miracles in one way,

because the doctors are taught how to fix hearts,

but it still is miraculous, the work that goes on there.

And what I do is about caring,

it's about being kind to people, it's about leading a Christian life.

# God sees you

# He knows where you are

# You are not forgotten

# No

# God knows you

# He chose you

# You're spoken of in heaven

# Only God

# Only God can see

# Inside every human heart

# Only God

# Really knows you

# God made you

# He loves you as you are

# You are not just a face in a crowd

# God hears you

# He's near you

# And he's closer than you think

# Only God

# Only God can see

# Inside every human heart

# Only God

# Really knows you

# You, you, you, you

# And only God

# Truly understands

# The issues of the hearts

# Only God

# Only God

# God hears you

# He's near you

# And he's closer than...you think. #

The average Londoner can expect to meet in a week

more people than his medieval counterpart met in a lifetime.

David Winter has retired not once but three times.

'The first job I retired from was at the BBC,

'20 years at the BBC as a producer

'and eventually Head of Religious Broadcasting.'

I then had five and half years as a paid vicar and I retired from that.

And then I had five years as a part-time paid vicar

and I retired from that.

You've obviously had a lot of practice

at this retirement business,

so what are the main difficulties that people face?

Well, I think the first one is a sort of loss of status.

I mean, people always say to you, "What do you do?"

So if you say retired, a sort of blank look crosses their faces.

And I suppose the other thing is the loss of the company, as it were,

the people you worked with.

It's also not having a structure or a shape to your day or your week.

Yes. And some people think that'll be the nicest thing.

"Oh, my goodness! I have had to get up every morning,

"I've had to catch the bus, the train."

But after a few months, it actually tends to pall,

because you suddenly realise you're not actually doing anything.

Does the Bible tells us anything about retirement?

Well, to be honest, no, because they didn't retire.

Until modern times, nobody retired.

I think my grandfather was the first generation.

He was given a clock, that was what he got when he left.

We haven't got an example in the Bible of anybody retiring,

you did what you did and then, when you couldn't do it any longer,

they propped you in a corner of the house and gave you your meals

and you gave them the benefit of your inspired wisdom.

It does tell us a lot, however,

about living life right up to the end, you know, to the full.

So how would you suggest that people live life to the full once retired?

My own personal experience

is that you have more time to pray and reflect, to listen more,

to be a good friend, a good partner, a good father, grandfather.

To be all the things that really God has called us to be

and they don't stop when you retire.

You can look back at your life and think of all the times

when you've failed to be any of that

and now here's an opportunity, as it were, to put it right,

to adjust one's life in the light of experience

and what the Holy Spirit says to us.

If you spend you working life

knowing exactly when you're going to retire,

then you can prepare for the change of lifestyle,

both practically and emotionally,

but what if retirement forces itself upon you?

Linvoy Primus was 35 when injury forced him to retire

from the job he loved.

Most of my life has been taken up with football.

By the time I was 16, I was training every day,

then playing on a Sunday as well.

So by the time I was 20 years old, if anyone asked me who Linvoy was,

I would have said a footballer,

because that's what my life was all about until I retired at 35.

I had to retire through a knee injury.

I'd had about three years of persistent operations.

And if you get to 35 as a footballer, that's quite a benchmark to get to.

Retirement and football finishing, yeah, my dream was over.

But I knew as one door was closing on my playing career

that there was another door open for me,

cos I really believe God had a plan for my life.

And through that vehicle of football, we also recognise

that there's other skills that people have. And business being one of them.

Along with two colleagues, Linvoy decided to set up a charity.

As Christians, we believe that there was a way

that we could get the local church to engage with the community.

So we decided that we'd start little football leagues,

which led on to a reading programme

and led on to a business enterprise challenge,

allowing young people to start businesses, trade for four months

and, at the end of that time, their work would get judged.

In this group there's going to be one team that wins,

but throughout this competition you will find new skills, new talents...

'Over the last seven years we've been running this,

'we've seen lives really change.

'Those are the things for me that really warm my heart.'

And I'm not saying that to be just cuddly

or, you know, "That sounds really good,"

but there's a reality to that.

Scorer a winning goal or changing someone's life?

Definitely changing someone's life.

# Day by day

# And with each passing moment

# Strength I find to meet my trials here

# Trusting in my father's wise bestowment

# I've no cause for worry or for fear

ALL: # He whose heart is kind beyond all measure

# Gives unto each day what he deems best

# Lovingly it's part of pain or pleasure

# Mingling toil with peace and rest

ALL: # Day by day Day by day

# Day by day

# Help me then in every tribulation

# So to trust thy promises, O Lord

# That I lose not faith's sweet consolation

# Offered me within thy holy word

# Help me, Lord, when toil and trial are meeting

# Here to take as from a father's hand

# A father's hand

# One by one The days, the moments fleeting

# Till at last with Christ I stay

# Day by day

# Day by day. #

CHORAL MUSIC

Hello everyone. Can I come in?

'Of course, many people spend their retirement in retirement homes.'

A lot of you have retired from jobs, haven't you?

-ALL: Yes.

-So what job did you do?

-Well, we had a public house for 40 years.

-Very hard work.

Very busy, yes. Very enjoyable.

Until I got to about 60, then you'd had enough.

What was it like when you retired?

Rather nice. Not to have to get up in the morning to go to work.

-So did you have any reservations at all about retirement?

-No.

The companies I'd worked for sometimes used to ring me up

and say, "Are you available?" And I'd say, "How much?"

LAUGHTER

I packed up work when I was... I think I was about 80-odd.

And I ended up in here. Very nice.

With all these ladies about me, what do you think?

LAUGHTER

-Dirty old man!

-You!

-LAUGHTER

'Maybe it's because I'm a writer

'that I'm inclined to look back over the years as a series of chapters,

'where every ending is also a new beginning.'

Retirement might mean the end of your working life,

but how wonderful to have a chance at last to slow down a bit.

Time for yourself.

Time for the people and the things that you love

and for God, who never stops loving you.

Father, guide us as we enter each new chapter of our lives,

comfort us as we stand before each new and unfamiliar horizon,

show us how to live fully each day and be all we can be,

give all we can give

and love all we can love.

Amen.

Whether we're in the autumn or even the winter of our lives,

our last hymn is full of reassurance

that, whatever changes we're going through,

God's love and faithfulness are always with us.

Next week, Huw Edwards celebrates St David's Day in the Land of Song.

He visits the beautiful city of Llandaff,

and is joined by Wales and Lions rugby forward Toby Faletau,

and the renowned mezzo soprano, Kate Woolveridge.

Plus performances from Welsh brothers Richard and Adam

and Llandaff Cathedral Choir.