Islander Beverly Battaglia has spent much of the last five years interviewing other retirees about their lives.

She’s compiled more than 100 personal stories and woven them together in a book written just for older adults — “Changing Lanes: Couples Redefining Retirement.”

The stories provide examples for what to do and what not to do to live a happy, successful life in retirement, she said.

“I want people to know that you can be an older adult and still do fun things,” said Battaglia, who worked as an organizational developer and social psychologist for years before retiring in 2002.

Through her work — helping companies and their employees shift the way they operate so they do better and more effective work — Battaglia gained a “deeper understanding of how people transition and how to help them transition.”

Retirement is, of course, a major transition, she said — one that can be difficult for many people.

“When you retire, you’re your own boss, and you have to come up with what’s relevant to you,” Battaglia said. “I want people to use these stories as a learning experience — so it comes alive for them and it’s not just somebody dictating what they should do.”

“Changing Lanes” is one of the first books that tackles the issue of couples retiring together, Battaglia said.

“Couples can retire together and deal with the emotional issues of retiring and have the life they’ve hoped and planned for,” she said.

In retirement, “you need not only your mental and physical health, but your spiritual and emotional health as well — and that’s what I talk about in the book,” she added.

Book reading

Author Beverly Battaglia will discuss her book, “Changing Lanes: Couples Redefining Retirement,” at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 10, at Vashon Library. Her book will also be for sale there.