Dad dying at 56 before he could retire changed how I live now; plan

My dad planned to golf and relax when he retired, but dying at 56 meant he never got to. In 2023 he dropped to four days a week after a long career as an insurance underwriter that at one point gave way to a decade plastering to better balance his schedule. That step was the first, and last, he took toward retiring.

A year later he told me he had cancer. Exceptionally fit — triathlons, marathons, Ironman races — he went from Hyrox to hospice care in just eight weeks, and on June 19, 2024, at the age of 56, oesophageal cancer snatched away his future. Spending each day with him during his illness let me distill three lessons he lived by.

First: live as if you might never make it. That idea is both pragmatic — prompting practical steps like updating a will and granting powers of attorney — and a call to action to stop deferring a fulfilling life. It led him to travel widely and take up sports, and it pushed me to pursue things I once planned to save for retirement, including a trip to New Zealand.

New Zealand

dad, oesophageal cancer, retirement, will, insurance underwriter, plastering, triathlons, ironman, hyrox, new zealand