He’s 87 and looking to be a trucker so he can afford his sick wife’s medical bills

Robert Blocksom has already sold his home, mobile trailer and some other personal belongings, so now he’s looking for an income, the 87-year-old retiree told WEWS.

But he’s not just looking for any job — he’s looking to be a truck driver, the TV station reported.

“I’ve always liked driving, so I figured that I’d like to be able to make some money driving,” he told WEWS. “That would be the best way to do it.”

He is looking for a truck driving job as he is struggling to afford his sick wife’s medical bills in Ohio, People reported.

“I got a little bit of everything, but mostly I can’t walk very well, and I’ve had some breast cancer,” Blocksom’s wife, Jelaine, told People. “I’ve just been diagnosed with asthma, so I’m having problems breathing. I was in the hospital twice last month. So it seems just about everything is falling off.”

Earlier this year, in June, Blocksom told The Washington Post that a trucking company that is “desperate for workers” would hire him for $50,000 a year if he got his commercial driver’s license. The catch? He’d have to drive an 18-wheel truck across the U.S. for one year, according to the Post.

“The more I think about it, it would be tough to be on the road Monday through Friday,” he told the newspaper, adding that he didn’t want to spend that much time away from Jelaine.

Now a few months later, Blocksom told People he will start taking commercial driver’s classes in September so that he can help pay his wife’s medical bills. He said he hopes to stay local and only work weekends so that he can still help his wife around their apartment.

“I believe I can do this pretty well,” he told WEWS, “and it would be a nice challenge and it’d be fun.”

Jelaine, though, wishes her husband didn’t have to come out of retirement and become a truck driver.

“I would hope he wouldn’t have to do that, but he sees that as a way out,” she told People. “It’s difficult, sure, but it’s harder on him because he takes care of me and the house. All I can do is make his meals for him!”

But Blocksom is not alone. In the last 12 months, 255,000 Americans who are 85 or older were working, according to the Post.

“They’re doing all sorts of jobs — crossing guards, farmers and ranchers, even truckers,” the Post reported. As of the 2016 Census, there were 1,000 to 3,000 truck drivers in the U.S. who are at least 85 years old, according to the newspaper.

A woman who heard about Blocksom’s story has started a GoFundMe fundraising page for the family’s medical bills. She said in an update that she reached out to the Blocksoms so she could link their banking account with the money that is raised. Nearly $15,000 has been raised as of 3 p.m. Thursday.

This story was originally published August 30, 2018 at 3:24 PM.