So yes, I have faced the prospect of dying, of having a specific cause of mortality hanging over my head for the rest of my life. But I don't think the experience changed me, not that either I or anyone close to me has been able to spot. All art is in some fashion escape. It sucks you out of your own life. It absorbs you.
Retirement is a process.
You have to figure out the new rules, and you have to figure out what works under the new rules. There's never enough time.