ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between seniors' post-retirement volunteering experiences and their senses of well-being. Volunteering provides seniors with a role that protects them "from hazards of retirement, physical decline and inactivity". State policies urge seniors to maintain meaningful societal engagements through second careers and volunteerism to ensure that they remain self-reliant and healthy. Before diving into the narratives of Grave-Free Promotion Society (GFPS) volunteers, it is important to consider the ways in which seniors' engagement in post-retirement lives is patterned according to gender and how these patterns shape well-being in late adulthood. Older volunteers' well-being, therefore, is in part generated from their engagements with and cultivation of ties with non-family others, which, in turn, are thought to positively benefit volunteers' physical well-being and their interpersonal well-being in a family context. The chapter explores the subjective experiences of volunteering, provides insight into the types and quality of rewards gained through volunteering, rather than simply assessing its investment-reward balance.
