A 91-year-old Winco clerk has funded her own retirement during the time she usually spends working for a two-week paycheck.

Betty Glover says she loves to work, but the Phoenix resident admits she’s starting to slow down, so she launched a GoFundMe page two weeks ago in hopes of paying off the fifth-wheel in which she lives. If she could pay off her home, she says, she could cover the rest of her monthly bills with her retirement income.

Generous community members, including a slew of Winco regulars, chipped in with amounts ranging from a few dollars up to $500, bringing her total as of Friday morning to more than $57,000. An overwhelmed Glover said she had heard from customers and suspected the donations continued beyond her $40,000 goal “because my customers want me to be able to take a vacation to see my family.”

“I never even thought I’d make $40,000. It really is heartwarming, and it makes me want to cry,” she says.

“I didn’t even know how to do a GoFundMe. My granddaughter did it for me, but I thought, ‘Nobody’s gonna do anything. Nobody cares about others anymore.’ I think all my co-workers have contributed and a bunch of my regulars.”

Working four days a week into her 90s, Glover slowed down a bit last year, going to two days. On Thursday, she announced that she’ll retire May 1, just weeks shy of turning 92.

Born May 22, 1931, Glover has worked her entire adult life, sometimes two jobs at a time. Growing up on a farm in California’s San Joaquin Valley, the youngest and sassiest of three siblings, “right after the Depression,” Glover says she never wanted for much.

“I was one of the lucky ones. I lived on a farm, so we had plenty of meat and veggies and fruit and milk and eggs,” she says.

“One of my jobs was gathering the eggs. It’s crazy to see how much eggs are right now. We had enough chickens that, every once in a while, we’d sell some. I can’t remember for how much, but bacon was 15 cents a pound, and that was in the store. If mom didn’t make bread, it was 3 or 4 cents for a loaf.”

Glover started working at the age of 20 after getting an accounting degree at Fresno State.

“I must’ve been 20 when I got my first real job. Even when I was going to school, I worked nights in a bakery. My god, that was 100 years ago,” she recalls.

After meeting her husband, Jack, a British man who served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, the couple married and moved to New Zealand. After a few years, they headed to South Africa until the beginning of apartheid.

“When we got married, he said the only place he would live, if we came to the States, would be Oregon, so we decided on the Rogue Valley. When we moved here the first time, Medford was a whole 30,000 people,” she says.

“We had friends that had a farm here, so we knew what Oregon was like. He loved the scenery, but also, back then, the people. Everybody helped everybody else.”

The couple ran a downtown restaurant, called Brokeridge House, serving breakfast and lunch for a few years before Glover said they “got the wanderlust again” and returned to South Africa.

“My two kids were born in Nevada, but my daughter’s children were born in New Zealand, and my son had one of his kids in Africa and one here. Our family has been all over the place,” she says. “I’ve visited Britain and Singapore, Hong Kong, Ceylon before it was Sri Lanka … I’ve seen a lot of history.”

After a return to Oregon, Glover spent decades working for Eckerson Roofing. After losing her husband in 1992 and leaving Eckerson — it closed in 2009 — Glover wasn’t sure what was next. Shopping one day in Medford’s Winco, she filled out an application.

“It was back when you filled out the old paper applications. I was already in my 70s, so I figured there was no way they were gonna hire me, but they did,” she says. “I took two years off just before the pandemic and traveled around to see the family. When I came back, it was about a month before my 90th birthday. It was in the beginning, when it was still really bad during the pandemic. They called and asked, ‘Can you come back to work?’”

A feisty 5-foot-2, Glover says she’s lucky to have “lots of regulars.”

Some younger customers ask how to cook the bags of produce they bring through her line, fellow employees ask for advice, and she’s watched families grow and change.

“People who go through my line all the time, you get to know them over 10 years. I’ll have people stand in line and one of the other cashiers will come say, ‘I’m open over here,’ and they’ll say, ‘No, we’ll wait for Betty,’” says Glover.

“I’m always happy to see them. It makes their day when I recognize them. You go through so many stores and the cashiers don’t even look at you, they just do their job and that’s it. People appreciate a human connection. I’ve got a friend who said I’m never going shopping with you again because you know everybody in town and they all want to stop and talk to you.”

Glover says her 90th birthday called for a slowdown.

“It got to be too much. At 90, my legs were starting to give out. By 91, I was feeling it even more. I talked to our guy who does the schedule and he said, ‘If you can give me two days, I’ll be OK.’ So that’s what we agreed on.”

Now, weeks from her 92nd birthday, Glover figures it’s finally time to do what she wants to do.

“I’ll still see my customers … but I’ll see them when I go in to do my shopping.”

At Blue Heron Park in Phoenix, one morning this week, a mom pushing her kids on a swing yelled to Glover, “You’re Winco Betty.”

Glover’s neighbor, Tracey Nelson, was walking with a friend on the Greenway.

“I did not actually believe Betty was 91, but it’s crazy to think she’s still working,” says Nelson, adding she was excited for Glover to finally retire. “I never would’ve thought of that, but it’s amazing. I’m really happy for her.”

After Glover hangs up her Winco apron, she says she’ll finally get to spend time with family — something she’s missed out on during her seven decades spent punching a time clock.

Her whole family — two kids, four grandkids, six great-grandkids and two great-great-grandkids — is on her list for some quality one-on-one time.

“I’ve worked all my life, but I never even thought about being in my 90s, much less that I would still be working. When we lived in Reno, I worked for an ad agency during the day, and then I’d go down to Harrell’s Club and deal blackjack. I’ve just never known anything different than working,” she says.

“When you’re 30, 90 feels like forever. Somebody said to me, ‘Well, you’re always so upbeat.’ I said, well, yes, I don’t sit around and think about dying. I think about living. And I think about what exciting things are gonna happen tomorrow.

“I look forward to tomorrow … I always have.”

To see Glover’s GoFundMe page, go to www.gofundme.com/f/efsqhv-help-me-retire-please.