In 2019, Gerry and his wife Susan officially retired.
After a lifetime of working hard to support themselves and their family, Gerry took down the sign that said “Gerry’s HVAC” and Susan turned in her resignation at the dental office where she had worked for the last nineteen years.
They were so happy to just stay home and not have to go in to work! No more emergency heater repair calls in the middle of a blizzard. No more frantic funeral home directors needing A/C for funerals that were to start first thing in the morning. No more calls from their pastor seeking advice on what to do to save money on the heating and cooling costs at the church. No more teaching heating and A/C or refrigeration classes at the local vocational technical center. No more agreeing to take payments on invoices because the customer is a little old lady on Social Security. They were so enthusiastic and satisfied, until they weren’t. About eight months into retirement, Gerry got hungry for something to do. All he could come up with to do was go to Gery’s Heating & Cooling to see if his child needed any help with HVAC calls. Suddenly, he was showing up most mornings and stay all day, answering the phone and talking to his former HVAC customers that now used his daughter’s business. He also distracted Geri’s employees, and was basically underfoot. It was a bit tiresome for Geri, especially when she had a lot to do. That’s when she bought her parents surprise tickets to Europe! They would soon be saying goodbye to the American HVAC world and going on a tour of France, Italy and Spain.