Phyllis May, a school superintendent who retired at 55 and moved alone to Key West, Florida on March 1, 1998, is the person the day is tied to, and her own website called that date the recognized 'ReFIRED, not Retired' Day in Chase's Calendar of Events. The listing first appears in the 2005 edition of Chase's, a directory compiled for the year printed on its cover, which places the submission at about 2004; no source located says outright that she created it.
CHAPTER 01
The morning she decided to leave
Phyllis May had lived in the same community for twenty five years when everything came loose at once. Her twenty year marriage was over. Her daughter had gone to college, she had recently moved her mother into assisted living, and her sick dog had just been put down.
Then, by the account on her own website, she woke one morning with a revelation and said: "I don't have to live here anymore!"
She had retired at fifty five after thirty four years in education, the last stretch of it as a school superintendent, and she had done no planning for retirement whatsoever. On March 1, 1998 she drove to Key West, Florida, alone.
