THE MEANING OF RETIREMENT FOR COMMUNALLY-LIVING RETIRED PERFORMING ARTISTS

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive transcultural study was to explore the meaning of retirement for those older people who have liv ed as performing artists and who are presently sharing communal living at the Casa Verdi di Riposo, Milan, Italy. Parse's nursing theory was the conceptual framework utilized to structure objectives and intervi ew questions. Findings showed that the meaning of retirement for these communally-living retired performing artists is the emerging of an un burdening lightness as esthetic interconnections surface the was and w ill-be in the now moment as the diversity of everydayness enlivens thr ough communion-solitude while anticipating the transposing vistas of t he inevitable prompts treasuring the now in confirming a perpetual art istic legacy. Findings were congruent with Parse's three major themes (meaning, rhythmicity, and transcendence) and support Parse's theory o f human becoming, as well as expanding the body of nursing knowledge o n the phenomenon of retirement.