Jayne Burns didn’t always plan on working past 100.
But most mornings, she drives herself 20 minutes from her house in Cincinnati to Mason, Ohio to clock into her shift as a part-time fabric cutter at Joann Fabric and Crafts store.Β
She’s been working at the store for 26 years β and it’s still one of her favorite ways to spend time. “I enjoy what I do, so I want to keep doing it,” she says. “I’ll work for as long as I can or as long as they’ll have me.”
Burns, who turns 101 on July 26, began working at the craft store in 1997, just a few months after her husband Dick died. Her daughter, Donna Burns, was working at the store part-time and recommended her for the role, thinking it might be a welcome distraction from the grief.
The centenarian, who was a bookkeeper for most of her career, tried retiring several times throughout her 70s and 80s, but would “unretire” just a few months later because she missed the routine and lunches with her co-workers.Β
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She doesn’t look a day older than 85.
God bless her.
FJB
Sometimes I think itβs the retirement that kills people more than the work.
Good for her.
When I retired I wondered how I ever found the time for work.
Biden looks a year older than 101.
Her work ethic needs to rub off on all the people laying on their backside down by the river. No, their motto is, you work, I lay about because you voted for me to do it! I want to say good on her, it kept her alive and healthy and happy. I can’t say that for those laying on their backside. I refuse to help a lazy person, they look so miserable.
Took up metal detecting after I retired. I’m outdoors all year, finding lots of incredible history, and jewelry for my wife at beaches in the summer. It keeps me out of her hair, and I’m still a one legged man in an ass kicking contest, I wonder how I got everything done while working. Hope I still have a few good years ahead.
My father died shortly after he retired. My mother worked into her 87th year when her health simply wouldn’t let her do so any more, and has deteriorated mentally ever since. We bitch about work but being useful and having daily interactions with people and being forced to use mind and body every day isn’t something its easy to set aside after a lifetime.
I will die when I stop working. I go crazy now if I get four days off and don’t fill them with work around the house. I can sit around and blog as well as the next guy but at some point, there’s stuff that needs doing, and you can only take so many naps.
Also speaking for myself, if I’m home and bored, I’ll eat. It’s in my best interest in terms of girth and grocery bill to NOT be home and inactive, as well as giving me less wear on the couch from the gravity sinking me ever further into its cushions…
βChoose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.β β Confucius
Retired. Never going back. Mrs. Bacon won’t have to work after I leave the world. I am a survivor – not a ‘ dead man walking’.
“….and you can only take so many naps.” wut?
Living past 100 and working for a living is white privilege racism.
Seriously though, her story is inspiring, those are some strong genetics.
I wonder if they made her get jabbed to work there.
Im 74. I still run my warehousing business and just signed leases for 3 more years. I’ve been agonizing about selling or shutting down in 3 years because I’ll be 77. But when I take a day off without a planned schedule I get crazy bored and lonely. This woman inspires me. God bless her.
I have thought about volunteering, and I did for about 6 months after I retired. When they started ordering me around, demanding more of my time, I told them adios. I you’re ordering me around, I expect to get paid for the misery. Now I walk 5-6 miles every day to keep my body and mind active and healthy. No one is going to do it for me.
@ Rich Taylor at 9:18 am,
I have had a number of different jobs since ’73, but have never “chosen” one…. just fell into them I guess. Officially retired in 2015 and still working pt. Gotta support my Whiskey and Cigar habit you know.
FJB
A very long and intimate relationship with the Beam and Daniels clans (among others) suggests I keep working, not for want of money but for discipline of self.
My pos is 84 and a former Marine…still working. He knows if he stops he drops. Coolest dude ever
haha he would enjoy my misfire…pops not pos which there are plenty of out and about