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The purpose of this qualitative descriptive transcultural study was to explore the meaning of retirement for those older people who have lived as performing artists and who are presently sharing communal living at the Casa Verdi di Riposo, Milan, Italy. Parse's nursing theory was the conceptual framework utilized to structure objectives and interview questions. Findings showed that the meaning of retirement for these communally-living retired performing artists is the emerging of an unburdening lightness as esthetic interconnections surface the was and will-be in the now moment as the diversity of everydayness enlivens through communion-solitude while anticipating the transposing vistas of the inevitable prompts treasuring the now in confirming a perpetual artistic legacy. Findings were congruent with Parse's three major themes (meaning, rhythmicity, and transcendence) and support Parse's theory of human becoming, as well as expanding the body of nursing knowledge on the phenomenon of retirement.

In the United States and in many other parts of the world, the fastest growing age group is 80 years and over. It is precisely in this oldest old age cohort that very little is known about the experience of health. The purpose of this study was to investigate the lived experience of health for the oldest old within the community through the use of the phenomenological method. While there has been some research on the personal experience of health, the meaning of these experiences has not been studied in the oldest old, community dwelling elderly. Findings reveal that for this age group, health is an abiding vitality emanating through moments of rhapsodic reverie in generating fulfillment. There are many implications for further research and practice based on the meaning of health as described by the oldest old.

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