Our guest today notes that “retirement is a little bit like life. It’s likely to be different than you think it’s going to be.” David Horton, MD shares the story of his life wife Dee Dee, and carrying on her mission and legacy. He discusses her book, Layer Upon Layer, which he helped complete.

David Horton joins us from Washington State.

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David Horton, a retired oncologist turned book editor, spent his career driven by a deep passion for science and genuine connection with his patients. After completing his residency, he moved to the Pacific Northwest, where he met his wife, DeeDee. Known for his patient-centered approach grounded in respect, empathy, and the art of deep listening, David founded RadiantCare Oncology, building a practice that aligned with his values as both a doctor and a person. David and DeeDee shared 32 years of love, self-growth, and adventure, creating a steadfast partnership.

Now retired, David is dedicated to honoring DeeDee’s mission by publishing her book, Layer Upon Layer, to continue her message and legacy

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For More on David Horton, MD

Layer Upon Layer book

Website

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Best Books on Retirement

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The Well-Lived Life – Dr. Gladys McGarey

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About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time.

About Retirement Wisdom

I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident.

Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms.

About Your Podcast Host 

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.5 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

Connect on LinkedIn

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Wise Quotes

Redefining Yourself in Retirement

“Retirement is a little bit like life. It’s likely to be different than you think it’s going to be. I think of retirement as quitting the structured daily routine of your week. Mainly, we’re keeping that because we need work to provide us with financial stability. The beauty of retirement is the opportunity to redefine yourself, realizing you’ve grown so much since you chose a career and started things. And so the first thing is you have to pay attention to the financial aspect early on, if you want the freedom to redefine yourself earlier while you have better health and you have more flexibility to integrate into the world and how it’s changed. And I think that’s so essential now because technology and things has taken over so much. The earlier you get on that, the more significant you can redefine yourself with retirement.”

On Layer Upon Layer by Dee Dee Horton

“A lot of the things described in Layer Upon Layer are things that Dee Dee either experienced herself or observed in her years of growing up as an athlete, as well as being a teacher and ultimately a coach. And I think one of the things that always bothered her was more the idea that the attention related to sports and being quote unquote successful in our society was a little bit of an easier journey or a lot of an easier journey for the males in our society. And that was always something that I think bothered her. And what also bothered her was whenever she did see in the media stories that were related to female athletes, it wasn’t about the female athletes working hard and striving and giving up things and discipline and all of that, which is the true sporting experience. Instead, it seemed to be the female athlete that was giving up the sport for either the love of a man, or it would be the male coach or the male boyfriend that came in and said, somehow motivated her and turned her into something more as opposed to having done it herself. And so I think she having a love of writing and things like that, she decided to write a book to I guess try to make people pay a little more attention to those issues. Well, interestingly, that was something that she picked very early on. And she loved it.”

On Purpose

“I do feel like retirement is a chance for people to redefine themselves and recognizing how much we’ve grown from the time we chose our profession and to where we are now. And in many ways, a huge part of my initial decision to retire was because my father had passed young, he was 61, and when I got to be in my early 50s and had a doc examine me where I had a little neurologic thing. And I went to see the neurologist and basically said to me goes, Well, Dave, don’t worry, this is one of two things. It’s either ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, which that’s one of the worst, that’s a bad bad when you get or it’s or it’s nothing. And the light went, wait a minute, I could be my dad so easy. So that was my chance to break away from an extremely, extremely intense, busy profession of providing cancer care for a large region in western Washington. I had spent my life, not only taking care of tons of patients, but planning out how to build clinics that it made it easier for patients to get in for treatment. And I said, Wow, this will be my chance to spend more time with Dee Dee and and continue to do more of the things that we could do together. And also free her to explore some things that she wanted to go into because she had been tied down to me being in a fixed location. And that’s the way it started. But it, of course, as we talked about retirement is going to be different, just life is going to be different than you think it’s going to be. For me, I guess what I’ve done is the heartbreak of losing Dee Dee has given me a purpose. I really felt satisfied with the gift that I had left my community, feeling like I’d made my community a better place and made a contribution.”