{"id":13609,"date":"2026-09-22T16:06:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T16:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/?p=13609"},"modified":"2026-09-22T16:06:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T16:06:36","slug":"at-88-veteran-working-full-time-finally-retires-after-community-raises-1-5-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/?p=13609","title":{"rendered":"At 88, Veteran Working Full-Time Finally Retires After Community Raises $1.5 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net\/v\/t39.30808-6\/645366367_122174776286784574_1188826259288372464_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_tt6&amp;cstp=mx1062x1332&amp;ctp=s1062x1332&amp;_nc_cat=103&amp;ccb=1-7&amp;_nc_sid=127cfc&amp;_nc_ohc=_caNYegh8K0Q7kNvwF2VJar&amp;_nc_oc=AdoiZe0ZDdiMRBhqu-LBc5HxTX_llmYRN0e_Rfnp5St95nU_0PMYD0e1qvqts4FoiHQ&amp;_nc_zt=23&amp;_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-2.xx&amp;_nc_gid=VScAr1c4Lg5rfRDBr34dBA&amp;_nc_ss=7b2a8&amp;oh=00_AQLRi5Y4A-9CFGhqnSI_wPgK2N6fpRlVDYwWx1foikmCtg&amp;oe=6AB87778\" alt=\"No photo description available.\" \/><\/p>\n<article id=\"post-13218\" class=\"post-13218 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-category-1\">\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"413\">Most people believe retirement will bring peace after decades of work. That was the hope for <strong data-start=\"93\" data-end=\"134\"><span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Ed Bambas<\/span><\/span><\/strong>, a veteran who later built a long career at <strong data-start=\"179\" data-end=\"220\"><span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">General Motors<\/span><\/span><\/strong>. When he retired in 1999, he felt secure. But after General Motors declared bankruptcy in 2009, his pension and benefits were reduced. The financial stability he counted on slowly disappeared.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-4\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-1\"><\/div>\n<p data-start=\"415\" data-end=\"747\">As medical bills rose and his wife Joan faced serious illness before her passing, the strain deepened. Eventually, Ed sold his home. In his late eighties, instead of resting, he returned to work, taking part-time jobs at <strong data-start=\"636\" data-end=\"677\"><span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Ace Hardware<\/span><\/span><\/strong> and <strong data-start=\"682\" data-end=\"723\"><span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Meijer<\/span><\/span><\/strong> just to make ends meet.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"749\" data-end=\"940\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">His story spread online, inspiring donations from thousands of strangers. The support raised over a million dollars, giving Ed a second chance at the peaceful retirement he had once imagined.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-2\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-tags\"><\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"entry-footer\">\n<div class=\"share-icons\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"author-box clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most people believe retirement will bring peace after decades of work. That was the hope for Ed Bambas, a veteran who later built a long career at General Motors. When &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13610,"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13609\/revisions\/13610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realnewsz13.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}