Life needn’t end just because you’ve retired.

Bermudian Michael Dowling was a teacher in Canada for 32 years. When he quit at the age of 55, he simply reinvented himself.

The 71-year-old has been working as a glass engraver ever since. He started his own business in Kitchener, Ontario, the place he’s called home since 1963.

“Retirement wasn’t a difficult transition,” he said. “There is more to life than teaching, and you just get involved in things. I think most teachers are ready to go by that time, and the pension is good. But I definitely had to give thought to what I was going to do with the rest of my life.”

A friend inspired him to try his hand at glass engraving.

“I thought that would make a perfect wedding gift for some friends. I made a box, engraved some wine glasses and a wine bottle. By the time I finished it all, five years had passed.”

Mr Dowling showed off his skills engraving perfume bottles at Brown & Co last week. He’s improved a lot since his initial effort — he can now write a message in a matter of minutes.

“Glass engraving can be very challenging,” he said. “There are different types of glass and different qualities of glass. Some of the perfume bottles have a coating of plastic over the glass, which is not ideal.”

Engraving is done with a bur. According to Mr Dowling, it’s similar to a dentist’s drill.

The practice isn’t a perfect one however. He sometimes spends hours on a project, only to find a crack.

“Either the crack was already there or the bur just made the glass too hot and it cracked,” he said.

Sometimes the challenge is just spelling names right, or putting the right anniversary date. “I have engraved the wrong date, on occasion,” he said. “It happens.”

Today, he has a cabinet full of glass he means to get around to engraving.

“Sometimes I will see an interesting piece of glass or a vase with a pretty colour and think, ‘I could do something with that’. It may be several years before I get around to using that piece of glass. I’m running out of space in there.”

He often engraves gifts for soloists in the Grand Philharmonic Choir in Kitchener, of which he is a member.

“Singing is my other passion,” he said. “I was always musical. My grandmother, Helena Marshall, really encouraged me when I was a child. She was my first voice teacher. We would listen to classical music together.”

He started taking professional lessons eight years ago.

“I realised if I wanted to stay in this choir and be a contributor, I had to start taking voice lessons,” he said. “I have a very wonderful mezzo soprano teacher who has been guiding me and helping me. With a tenor voice you have to keep it well prepared otherwise you can end up singing baritone.”

As a youngster he attended the Central School (now Victor Scott Primary) and Bermuda Technical Institute before going to Canada to boarding school.

“I had to get away to better myself,” he said. “Adjusting to life in Canada was probably one of the biggest obstacles in my life.

“When I went there I had never been to Canada. I hadn’t even been on a train before. I started in grade 11. I was 19 years old and most of my fellow students were around 17.

“At that time you could start teaching a year out of high school and earn a teaching degree part-time. I did that at St Jerome’s University, but doing that part-time was very challenging.”

He returns to Bermuda every year, and always makes a point of seeing 103-year-old Doris Corbin, one of his old Central School teachers.

“I always tell her about my singing,” he said. “She was instrumental in my life and always encouraged me.”

The piece he is most proud of is a plate he engraved for his old Bermuda Technical Institute teacher Derek Woods, who now lives in England.

“I met him in Huddersfield, England last November,” Mr Dowling said. “He was one of my mentors when I was a kid.”

Mr Dowling said the reward for glass engraving is seeing the expression on someone’s face when they receive it.

“I think they get more excited about it than you do,” he said.

Mr Dowling is married to Bermudian Freida Simmons. They have two sons, Tyrone and Gordon.