• 91-year-old Betty Glover is relying on a GoFundMe campaign to help her finally retire.

• Glover now works as a cashier for a grocery store chain in Oregon.

• She has worked for seven decades straight but says she still needs money to pay off her mobile home.

It would be a cause for celebration if it wasn't so dystopian: A 91-year-old American woman may have raised enough money online to finally retire.

Betty Glover is a great-grandmother who says she has worked for seven decades straight. For the last 10 years, she's been a cashier at WinCo, an Oregon supermarket chain. Before that she worked for a roofing company.

But with her eyes beginning to fail her and remaining debt still to pay on the fifth-wheel camper —the kind of mobile home towed by a truck — where she lives, Glover has joined the legions of Americans who are turning to the generosity of strangers for relief from crushing debt.

"I really need to retire as my eyesight is failing due to macular degeneration," she said in a GoFundMe post. "To retire I need to pay off the fifth wheel I live in. If I can do this, I will have enough to pay for the rent of the space, groceries and medications that I need."

Despite being one of the wealthiest countries on the planet, growing old in the United States is a hardship for millions of elderly Americans. Almost 90 years after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, Americans are now approaching retirement at a time of increased inflation and wage stagnation. Meanwhile, the cost of living and medical care for senior citizens has escalated.

As a result, the average retirement age in the United States continues to increase. It is now 61, up from 59 in 2002 and 57 in 1991. Americans are also expecting to retire much later than they did a decade ago. 

Glover's fundraising campaign has so far raised more than $60,000, far exceeding her goal of $40,000. Glover told the Rogue Valley Times, a local newspaper in the town where she still works, that she hopes the money will allow her to finally spend some time with her grandkids.

"I've just never known anything different than working," she told the outlet. Glover did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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