Robert has been part of Hemby for almost six years, practically from the very beginning. A pensioner, yes, but far from retired from life. After 45 years in banking, much of it spent working with international clients and export companies, helping people has always been at the core of who he is. Customer service, understanding needs, finding solutions is what he's done for most of his life. Those skills didn’t disappear when he left the office for the last time. They simply found a more human setting.
Retirement, Robert says, shouldn’t mean sitting at home wondering what to do next. He wanted something meaningful. Something that felt like work, but better, helping other seniors. The days have never felt empty. If anything, there has often been more to do than he’s had time for. Alongside four lively grandchildren who bring their own joyful contrast, supporting older people gives his weeks rhythm, purpose and variety. From young to the very old, life stays wonderfully broad.
The role has also been a quiet way of preparing for his own later years. Not retirement in the formal sense, he has already been retired for nearly a decade, but for ageing itself. Having grown up in a three generation household, and later spending time with elderly relatives and friends, Robert felt he already understood what it means to age. This work deepened that understanding. It has taught him empathy, patience and the importance of listening, really listening, to what someone wants and needs.
He joined after Hemby's founder Richard reached out through a pensioners’ association, asking if anyone might be interested. Robert put his hand up, and the collaboration has worked ever since. What he enjoys most is seeing concrete results. Sometimes it’s small, everyday things that make the biggest difference. One of the first people he helped, someone he still supports today, is blind. Robert once spent hours researching and sourcing a talking blood pressure monitor, only to discover the device spoke Polish, Hungarian and Czech, but not English. A complaint, a return, and a better solution later, the problem was solved. It’s that kind of practical problem solving that gives him real satisfaction.
Not everything is easy. The hardest moments are when communication fails, when memory illness makes conversation impossible. Even then, Robert finds a way. A walk outside. Fresh air. Quiet companionship. Because sometimes helping isn’t about words at all.
For active pensioners looking for something that matters, something driven by purpose rather than pay, Robert’s story shows what’s possible. Staying engaged. Staying useful. And staying very much part of the world.
