Canada: 64-Year-Old Gives Up Retirement and Follows Dream of Becoming a Pastry Chef

A few days before receiving his retirement, a man reads an advertisement for course on a campus. Today he is a pastry chef and shares his knowledge with young people: “If you have a passion, go for it."

The story

Life? It can start at 64. This is the story of Canadian Ed Hamilton-Irving, that instead of seeking comfort in some tropical bay or bringing the grandkids to the park, finally managed to realize his dreams. “The strange thing is that I still feel like I am in retirement even though I work forty hours a week. I know it may sound like a watered-down cliché, but when you do what you love, it does not feel like work at all.”



The breakthrough occurred just a few days after his retirement from Moncton Hospital. It was then that he read an article in the newspaper that changed his life: ‘White Art and Pastry in One Year,’ so I turned to my wife, and I asked her how crazy it sounded. Surprisingly, she answered that, I should go for it.”



Ed applied and got accepted, and in September started to attend the Halifax NSCC, feeling like a student all over again, a spartan room for rent, and a student membership for public transport to get to campus every day. “When my son left, I remember asking myself whether I was crazy. But at the moment I entered the pastry lab I felt I was doing the right thing.”

@Alana Pickrell-CTV Atlantic

The passion that never left him. “My mother was a good home baker and just before starting university she taught me how to prepare cake batter. She said: ‘One day you’ll need it.’ So, I think I got It from her.” Today he is having been a professional pastry chef at Tony’s Bistrot for almost three years, never missing a shift. Every day when I get home from work my wife asks me how it went, and the answer is always the same: wonderful.

@Alana Pickrell-CTV Atlantic

Thanks to Ed, the shop got noticed for his daily fresh preparations with fresh products, changing the menu every three months. But the message is for everybody: “If you have a dream or passion, go for it. It will help you in the end.” 

Source: atlantic.ctvnews.ca

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Foto: @Tony´s bistro