Editor’s note: After careers in nursing and patient advocacy, includ-ing decades helping build the Spondylitis Association of America (SAA) as its co-founder and executive director, Jane Bruckel retired in 2006. Twenty years later, she reflects on the interests and adventures that have filled her retirement, from historical fiction and world travel to competitive table tennis, birding, and piano duets with a friend.
The morning after I retired in 2006, I jumped out of bed as if I were still heading to work—then suddenly realized I had nowhere to go. I took a deep breath, slowed myself down, and went back to bed. When I finally got up again, I made breakfast, settled into a chair, and picked up a book. I haven’t stopped reading since.
For most of my working life, I had long hours and little opportunity to read anything outside of work-related material. Retirement changed that. I like many genres, but historical fiction remains my favorite.
While books open doors to other worlds, travel has long been my way of encountering them firsthand. It has always been a shared passion between my husband Harry and me. In our younger years, with no children and flexible schedules—Harry running a tax practice and able to travel after tax season, and me able to take extended leaves from nursing—we were fortunate to take trips to extraordinary places. We traveled to destinations such as Papua New Guinea and the Amazon jungle, and even body-surfed for two weeks off the coast of Kenya, where the long, slow equatorial waves made for unforgettable rides.
Our first major trip after my retirement was to the Galápagos Islands. We sailed on a small yacht that normally accommodated sixteen passengers, but there were only six of us on board. Our small group quickly bonded, and it was a wonderful cruise to a once-in-a-lifetime destination.
Halfway through the trip, however, I developed a severe respiratory infection and spent much of the remainder confined to the boat. As luck would have it, one of the six passengers happened to be the Chief of Respiratory Diseases at a major hospital in the eastern United States. She cared for me throughout the trip, providing medication and checking in daily.
After the cruise, Harry and I continued on to Costa Rica as planned. We spent several days in a bungalow perched high above the ocean in the rainforest canopy. Surrounded by wildlife and spectacular views, it was the perfect place to regain my strength.
Another interest I discovered soon after retirement was competitive table tennis. I did not set out to become a serious player. I was looking for ways to stay active and tried a few different activities, but none really stuck. Then one day I saw people playing table tennis and decided to give it a try. I had loved playing ping-pong as a child, and before developing ankylosing spondylitis I had always been athletic. Even so, I never imagined I would become a competitive player in retirement.
From 2007 to 2014, I played regularly, including competing in the
U.S. Nationals for three years. Before long, I was playing several times a week at clubs throughout the Los Angeles area. I loved it; it was fast-paced, social, and a great cardiovascular workout. Advances in AS treatment, including anti-TNF biologic therapy, allowed me to stay active at a level I once would not have thought possible.
My primary coach was Hall of Fame player and Olympic medalist Gao Jun. One of the highlights of those years came when she invited me to be her doubles partner in a national seniors tournament. I was honored—and a little nervous—not wanting to be the reason we lost early. Instead, we advanced through several rounds and finished third in our division.
I also enjoyed tournaments that gave Harry and me an excuse to travel together. One of our favorite annual trips took us to St. George, Utah, for a Senior Olympics event. Each year, we combined the tournament with visits to nearby national parks, including Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, and Capitol Reef. The event included athletes from many different sports and featured elaborate opening ceremonies. One year, there was even a parachute landing.
My last tournament in St. George marked the end of my competitive play. What had begun as a tingling sensation in my right foot while I was still working at SAA gradually progressed through the years as nerve pain and numbness up my leg. I later learned it was related to an extremely rare complication of advanced AS. Although I stepped away from competition, I remain grateful for those years of play, the friendships I made, and the unexpected opportunities the sport brought into my life.
Travel often inspired another longtime interest of mine: birding. Over the years, often during vacations while still working at SAA, I traveled with a close friend to observe birds in different parts of the country. We followed migratory routes along the Rio Grande in Texas and stood in the frozen landscape of southern Oregon watching bald eagles emerge from a cave each morning during winter roosts.
More recently, a neighbor and I have visited Bear Divide in the San Gabriel Mountains, where scientists recently documented a remarkable migratory pathway for songbirds. Each spring, thousands of birds pass through a narrow mountain gap during the daytime, allowing researchers to observe and study migration in a way that is rarely possible elsewhere. Volunteers carefully remove birds from fine nets so they can be banded, measured, and released. Watching the process unfold is a reminder that discoveries are still being made in our own backyard.
In 2013, my friend Andi and I began playing piano duets together. Andi is a longtime friend who volunteered in the early days of SAA. A casual conversation about piano lessons developed into a lasting musical partnership.
Since we don’t live close together, we had only been getting together about once a month to play and didn’t want to stop when COVID came around. After some experimentation, we found that FaceTime, combined with wired headphones to improve sound transmission, allowed us to continue playing together. So, during COVID we played once a week, instead of once a month, and have continued at that pace ever since.
By playing more often, we improved faster and, as a result, can play more difficult pieces together. We’ve worked our way from simple songs to more challenging pieces like Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Debussy’s Clair de Lune. Although nerve pain while sitting can make practice more challenging at times, I continue to find real joy in playing with Andi.
Looking back, retirement has not been an ending so much as a shift in rhythm. It has created space for reading, travel, music, nature, and reflection. Curiosity and connection continue to shape my days, much as they did during my years in nursing and at SAA. The difference is that now I have more time to follow where they lead.
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