Heart Attack, Months Later

A couple of months ago I was having lunch with my Ranger friend Denis Poole.  Denis and I went through the Academy together.  He is three months younger than I am and as the two old codgers in the class we helped each other get through.  I think Denis is a better Ranger than I am.  I’ve always felt smarter than Denis but he knows it’s not true and so do I.  He is a very good friend and has a much more subtle sense of humor than I do. 

Retirement was the main topic of our wide ranging conversation.  I was retiring shortly after our lunch and Denis is thinking about it.  I shared with Denis my anxiety about having enough income.  I have Social Security, CalPers, and my own funds and I didn’t know how much the net checks were going to be from each of these.  I worried, maybe it wouldn’t be enough, and Denis said I should think about drawing down on the principle of my savings, amortizing it over a 30 year period.  Denis like me was a banker before he became a Ranger and the two of us were familiar with actuarial tables and the concept of stretching money out over the life expectancy of someone.  Denis was right; I don’t realistically expect to live beyond 95 years. 

Toward the end of our lunch, he asked me how my heart was after the heart attack.  How was I doing?  I told him I was OK.  Everything was fine.  He knew I had gone back to full duty as a Ranger three months after the heart attack.  I shared with him I had no problems, nonetheless I was so much more aware of my heart.  Every time I thought about it, I could feel an ache in my chest and I thought about it frequently.  Everything checked out fine, it was just a psychosomatic awareness of the vulnerability I felt around my heart.  I even thought I could feel the stents vibrate or quiver sometimes.  I know I’m OK.  I told him I thought it was just natural to worry about it, no real cause for concern.      

Denis looked at me, shrugged and said, “Well maybe you can amortize it over 20 years.”