ABSTRACT
This chapter inquires Brenda Rossow-Kimball's account of her experiences alongside two participants. The first story fragment is composed around Brenda's visit to her participants' backyard garden. The second story fragment shows Brenda's awakening to one of her participants as a social and sexual being as he speaks of meeting his girlfriend, a person working in a shop. In both stories Brenda make visible how she sees participants and herself in new more complex ways through the narrative inquiry and, at the same time, shows the importance of wakefulness and of being wide-awake to the layers of experience through the narrative inquiry. She frames her narrative inquiry research puzzle around the stories of retirement of older adults labeled with intellectual disabilities. She comes alongside Doug and Don, two brothers, as they retire from a sheltered workshop. It is Brenda's professional interest in programming for leisure activities for seniors and especially those with intellectual deficits.
