Ali Keenan Retirement

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I think she’s doing a 3 hour Festival of Diamonique show on Tuesday 30th (6 - 9pm) I think someone mentioning Charlie doing it with her, although I’m probably mistaken. Charlie and Alison are good friends so she could have a send off at the end of that show as I don’t know if she’s presenting any other shows on 31st.

I hope they do acknowledge her years on QVC.
 
I think she’s doing a 3 hour Festival of Diamonique show on Tuesday 30th (6 - 9pm) I think someone mentioning Charlie doing it with her, although I’m probably mistaken. Charlie and Alison are good friends so she could have a send off at the end of that show as I don’t know if she’s presenting any other shows on 31st.

I hope they do acknowledge her years on QVC.
I dread to think of all the messages she'll get and then read them out loud. She deserves an on-air thank you, but don't let it be dripping with sentiment. I wish her the best. She's been through the mill recently.
 
Just saw a bit of her with Charlie. He was ‘teasing’ her that she’ll never have to work with Jill, Dale or Julia again. She didn’t object and say how lovely they are.
 
I saw the Facebook live Charlie and her did and it was quite lovely. She's doing two shows between 15.00-17.00 tomorrow and then that's it. She said she'll still be active on social media, continue her podcasts and would like to conitinue doing voice-over work, writing and has written a radio play which she'd like to get aired. .
 
Partner is locally, quite a well-known in legal circles solicitor. She used to do local radio shows offering legal advice in the Nottinghamshire area and was a big and active cheese in the various legal circles in the county. Her job was very much a key part of her life for forty years. Last week she retired, and like most of us do at this point in life, she did the ‘this is really great - all the things I can do now’ routine. But at other, more sombre, candid moments, you clearly could see her despair at losing such a strong and important element of her daily living world, and just what on earth she was going to do to attempt to fill this massive void. I think, for her, and others, it is the rapid speed of just how quickly a career seems to forget you. Colleagues send some flowers and some cards, and then ‘you’ve gone’, your absence accepted, and they move on. It was similar when my wife died. Her nursing colleagues lined the roads around the QMC for her (we could only have 20 at the funeral due to Coronavirus rules), but one year later, and despite me regularly promoting the date with the various places she worked as a nurse, for the ceremony of internment in the columbarium at the local crematorium, three of them turned up. Thankfully, she was obviously oblivious to the fact. But for me, it just emphasised the point that you are not long remembered and a much longer time forgotten. Retirement, for many (not all) can be the living version of that in a sense. Your validity and purpose and human connection for so long, gone in an instant. For her (Keenan) I hope those feelings aren’t there. Some take really well to this drastic change in purpose, and I hope she will be one of them.
 
Partner is locally, quite a well-known in legal circles solicitor. She used to do local radio shows offering legal advice in the Nottinghamshire area and was a big and active cheese in the various legal circles in the county. Her job was very much a key part of her life for forty years. Last week she retired, and like most of us do at this point in life, she did the ‘this is really great - all the things I can do now’ routine. But at other, more sombre, candid moments, you clearly could see her despair at losing such a strong and important element of her daily living world, and just what on earth she was going to do to attempt to fill this massive void. I think, for her, and others, it is the rapid speed of just how quickly a career seems to forget you. Colleagues send some flowers and some cards, and then ‘you’ve gone’, your absence accepted, and they move on. It was similar when my wife died. Her nursing colleagues lined the roads around the QMC for her (we could only have 20 at the funeral due to Coronavirus rules), but one year later, and despite me regularly promoting the date with the various places she worked as a nurse, for the ceremony of internment in the columbarium at the local crematorium, three of them turned up. Thankfully, she was obviously oblivious to the fact. But for me, it just emphasised the point that you are not long remembered and a much longer time forgotten. Retirement, for many (not all) can be the living version of that in a sense. Your validity and purpose and human connection for so long, gone in an instant. For her (Keenan) I hope those feelings aren’t there. Some take really well to this drastic change in purpose, and I hope she will be one of them.
She will probably do okay. It seems to me that her career at QVC was not all absorbing like your partner’s and she had other irons in the fire. I agree people move on quickly. Take care
 
She's probably got Grandchildren and can now spend some time and in my experience some money on them. There's a time for everything my dad always say's. Time to enjoy a new chapter in her life.
 
You really do have to plan for retirement and not just financially. A colleague of mine has recently done a pre-retirement course which our employer runs, and she said she's sorry she didn't do it in her earlier (she's five years away from her planned retirement date). They recommend having clear plans about what you're going to do with your time and more importantly, what you're not going to do. Apparently, volunteering is one of the biggest traps retirees can fall into and find themselves open to being taken advantage of. Apparently charitable and other volunteering type organisations assume that retirees have plenty of time on their hands and call them out of the blue, asking them to fill in for someone who can't make their shift/commitment etc. The course leader said it's fine to volunteer, but you need to be clear what you'll do, when you'll do it, and that you have other commitments outside those times.

Ali sounds like she has clear plans - she'll be able to do gardening when she wants to, not when she can fit it in. They plan to tour the UK and see all the beautiful places, especially in the north - her husband hasn't been to Scotland other than a brief trip to Edinburgh. She plans to see the older members of her family more - she's visiting her Godmother next week and she'll get to enjoy her grandchildren. She was clear that she was retiring from QVC because she wanted to commit to other things in life that she couldn't do while having such a huge commitment to them. She was clear that she wasn't necessarily retiring from work completely, and even joked that she might come back at some point.
 
One thing I found surprising during the Facebook chat was when they were reminiscing about their time working together, they talked about the 1.00 am hour being a hard slog as though they no longer do that slot live. It's been years since I watched a live show and I didn't realise tha tthe 9.00 pm TSV launch had reduced the numbers of hours they broadcast live. I also didn't realise they'd moved from Battersea over 10 years ago now.

It was also the first time I've been on their Facebook page and was amused by a message from a customer asking how long their call centre operators were going to take to answer the phone as she'd been trying for some time. Q replied to say that they were all very busy and that she should try and phone at a more convenient time!
 
She's probably got Grandchildren and can now spend some time and in my experience some money on them. There's a time for everything my dad always say's. Time to enjoy a new chapter in her life.
I believe she may have mentioned them a time or two….,,,,,or a thousand…
 

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