Busier at 79 than 56

Eleanor Clinkscales

I often hear people say that they are busier in retirement than when they were working. I'm not sure why that is -- perhaps others naturally assume that retirees have a lot of free time.

For Eleanor Clinkscales of Ragland, Ala., life is busier now at age 79 than 24 years ago when God gave her (and her husband Gordon) a mission. Here's the story from The Daily Home:

It was while on vacation in Cuernavaca, Mexico, 24 years ago that Clinkscales said God spoke to her.

'Gordon collected knives, and he wanted knives from the Maya Indians,' she said. 'We went up to where they were selling the knives, and when we left, we decided to walk back to where we were staying because the people in Mexico eat very late at night. They may eat supper at 10 p.m. We decided to walk down the railroad tracks, and I saw poverty like I’d never seen before.'

Clinkscales said she saw people living in cardboard boxes with one outside spigot for water and no sanitation.

'The Lord spoke to me right then and there,' she said, 'but I told Him to get somebody else because I had not been poor in a long time. The Lord persisted and when I finally gave in, I did not take a chance on me knowing what I needed to do just by myself. I went around to food banks, to people who dealt with the poor, and asked questions. I wanted to know what worked and what did not work.'

It was in 1987 when Clinkscales, then 56, started helping the needy people of St. Clair County.

Since that time, Clinkscales has been passionate about serving the poor in St. Clair County, Ala. She regularly coordinates projects to make sure students have school supplies, coats during the winter, food at Thanksgiving and toys at Christmas. With her most recent project, she helped 200 children have toys for Christmas and also put together 154 food baskets for needy families during the Christmas holidays.