Sue

By Sue Griggs, TCP Associate

Ten years ago, my husband asked me when I was going to retire. He became quite frustrated and a bit annoyed when I said that I had absolutely no idea when I was going to ‘retire’. I also mentioned that I hated the whole concept of retirement and that I couldn’t possibly plan that far ahead.

To put this question into a context, it is perhaps worth mentioning that I was slightly ahead of the Boomer population so I always had the pick of any particular job I wanted. I was able to satisfy my eclectic interests as I moved from country to country, job to job, full-time to part-time, in-house employee, freelance consultant, corporate to non-profit and back again. I did well at whatever I tackled and loved everything I did. I was lucky – I worked where I wanted to for most of my life. Over the years, I have achieved several degrees along with a couple of diplomas. I have been an early childhood educator, a researcher, a course developer, an organizational effectiveness consultant, a psychotherapist and an executive coach. Of course, the basic theme throughout my work career has been my passion to create an environment for people from ages two to eighty so that they could learn and grow.

Back to the question, “When am I going to retire?”, I preserved family harmony by describing a pie – a pie with eight wedge shaped pieces of different sizes. At that time, I described the wedges as: work, family, my own learning, recreation, travel, volunteer activities, cultural activities and the unknown. I drew a visual picture of my pie and talked about how each ‘wedge’ would change over the years. Ten years later, the design of my life has indeed changed; however the pie analogy still fits. Most of the same wedges are in place, although they may not look the same, and they seem to be more interwoven than ever.

The family wedge has changed dramatically as we have been involved in caring for elderly parents until their deaths, and more recently making a commitment to be involved in the lives of our granddaughters. Of course dealing with health issues and complications of aging bodies has taken a bigger piece of the family pie than previously. The work wedge has also changed although it hasn’t lessened that dramatically. The financial compensation has diminished considerably as we do more and more pro bono work and I use my skills in a number of non-profit ventures around the world. For the most part, work and volunteering have become one and take up a very important part of the pie. Travel has increased somewhat, although more and more of the travel is tied up with non-profit work, volunteering and family as well. Learning and being involved in new things hasn’t stopped. Designing and building a house and attempting to learn a new language have taken considerable time and energy. The wedge involved with the unknown is flexible – holding a space for possibilities and for the unexpected, both of which seem to pop up.  Living a life with meaning and purpose is not always easy; however it is the goal that provides stability to a career – a career, a life and a path which is continuing.

Am I retired? Are we retired? In the traditional sense, mostly. However, when considering the bigger picture, I have not retired from life. Is my ‘career’ over? I feel that as usual, a new chapter and a new career has already started and the journey will continue.

By Sue Griggs, TCP Associate

Two and a half years ago, I heard a radio interview about the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign of the Stephen Lewis Foundation. The focus was on raising awareness and mobilizing support in Canada for Africa’s grandmothers who are raising a generation of children whose parents, their own children, have been killed by AIDS.  The campaign has raised money for community-level organizations in 14 sub-Saharan African countries that provide the “GoGo Grannies” with much needed support, such as food, housing grants, school fees for their grandchildren and grief counseling.  Being a grandmother myself, I was so excited when I heard this idea that I helped to organize and participated in the Grandmothers Gathering that launched the campaign in the summer of 2006. As a result, I became co-chair of a group of 20 grandmothers. However, I soon realized that this was not the best use of my skills or my interest. After helping these grandmothers find another ‘home’, I became involved in other areas of the campaign.

At the Grandmother’s Gathering, I was inspired by the African grandmothers’ stories of their lives and challenges. I plunged in with my usual enthusiasm and with a colleague, initiated the idea of publishing a “More Than An African Cookbook” to create direct connections among the grannies and produce a volume of Canadian and African recipes, stories, photographs, etc. that would have broad appeal and raise money for the campaign. Although the publishing date has been pushed back several times, this project has proved to be significant and so far has involved hundreds of grandmothers across Canada and many others from South Africa. As of November 6, 2008, there are 220 grandmother groups across the country and since they all have friends and family, the possibilities for raising awareness of the issues among Canadians are enormous.

Although I admit it takes a great deal of energy, I have been rewarded by making a difference in others’ lives, by encouraging others and seeing them learn and grow, by the connections to new people and my own learning through the process. Late last year, six other volunteers and I organized the Ontario Regional Resource Group (ORRG) to raise awareness, educate, and connect the over 90 groups in the province. ORRG has held four Regional gatherings so that the grandmother groups can share information and connect with each other. It has been wonderful to see the huge amount of collaboration that been has engendered and the “little victories” that are heart-warming to witness. Women from age 50 to almost 90 are working together and are learning to use computers, to run meetings, to understand group dynamics, to support each other and are becoming empowered in the process.

Other Regional groups, based on the Ontario model, will be starting soon. I now see my role as moving from doing to coaching others, encouraging collaboration and shared leadership rather than stepping in. I want to use more of my coaching skills and my ability to see larger perspectives and systems, contributing to the Canada-wide steering committee. I also want to write about my experience with the campaign as a way of sharing the learning from my involvement. It is a fascinating social phenomenon that has tumbled forward with lots of missteps but all the time growing, inspiring, connecting and collecting grandmothers around the world – it is a story that needs to be told.