I am retiring after cancer treatment.

Don't give it another thought and just do it.  Everyone I know who is retired is enjoying life.  You can always get a part time low paying job later if you want.  I retired at 57 and was diagnosed 3 months later.  Looking back, I wish I had stayed on due to the medical cost.  After treatment I worked at a similar job for almost a year but am still considered retired at 63. 

Your life is only so long.  Go out and enjoy it if it's financially possible.  In my case it is.  My wife continues to work to keep me doing all the errands, etc., so she can just relax when she gets home.  Life is very good now at 5 years out from rads.

Just do it.  No regrets.

I have been 'retired' for eight years, and couldn't go back.  Since then I have had a series of part-time/seasonal adventure jobs, currently work at a modest level as an earth sciences tech, did the entire series of financial planner certification courses, did yet another undergrad major (#3), plus another minor (also #3) on my ancient Business BS, and periodically pack up and travel about living in a small travel trailer or the shell on the back of my pickup.  There is no way I could possibly readapt to a conventional job. 

That said, I know people that are absolutely miserable being retired, and if you feel that might be a result for you/your spouse recommend that it be avoided.  Cancer for me has been a not terribly subtle message that the time I have left is definitely finite.  In the end that time needs to be spent carefully.  The trick is that choice only makes sense to us individually, if it makes any sense at all.  As a person with little tendency to be 'conventional', I will argue there is nothing wrong with living a life that is conventional.  My wife and I had an absolutely standard Presbyterian wedding with very traditional vows.  In the 40 years since it has proven to be totally unique; no one does it that way anymore, so it turned out to be truly different.  I envy some of the scientists I know that have an actual life-work.  They've found something that they actually want to do for their whole life; I've never had that.  So far. 

But, 'retirement' is not the end.  The US lives on volunteers.  Campgrounds, museums, hospitals, libraries, schools, recreation centers, animal shelters, et al, are all staffed with wonderfully interesting old people.  I am constantly bombarded by messages from +55 groups on Meetup that are headed off to: hike, paddle, climb, ski, sail, eat, dance, watch. In the face of so much activity sloth seems so much the unconventional path. I spent the day trimming tree limbs, drinking expresso,  and watching the year's crop of Northern Flickers try to figure out how to land on my suet feeders.  The young seem universally prone to ineptitude.  

and decided to retire simply because I now knew that LIFE IS SHORT!!   That feeling of "I'm letting them down" comes from the good employee inside you....they'll be fine with it, and you will love being retired!!  (I sure have....I get to do whatever I want whenever I want).  Go for it!

p

I'm 56 right now and three years into battling this thing. I had to sell my home and car. Fortunately I had only one bill that I paid off with the amount I got from the house sale. I moved in with my daughter and we are talking about me retiring completely. I haven't worked in almost eleven months now since the company forced me to take leave. I get disability checks from the government as apparently they thought mine was serious enough that they bumped it ahead. I started getting checks about four months after I applied.

She says she's fine with it after what I've been going through and with the recurrence happening so frequently, life is too short and I'm on my last straw now for treatment. If this doesn't work then it's just a matter of time. So comfort and do what I like to do and if I feel like sell what I make. Really though, it would hardly pay postage if I did but I would like to get something published simply for prosterity's sake.

In any case, from one cancer patient to another, I think you did the right thing. This thing could recur and you'll miss the time you could have had to be with friends and family.