LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — At 85 years old, Louisville resident and veteran Carl Pflieger was still putting in seven-day workweeks as a delivery driver.

Now, after a lifetime of service and struggle, he's finally getting help from a worldwide kindness campaign that's giving him the chance to step into retirement.

Pflieger served in the U.S. Navy during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, a tense moment in history he remembers monitoring Cuban waters as global tensions rose.

But decades later, life didn't slow down.

"I can't walk good," Pflieger said, describing the health challenges that made everyday work increasingly difficult.

Still he kept going, working as a delivery driver just to stay afloat.

"I put 400,000 miles on that 21 Kia in four years," he said.

Then came another turning point: about a month and a half ago, Pflieger lost his job after budget cuts.

"Is this the end for me?" he said. "No it's just the beginning. Really it was meant to happen."

That new beginning arrived in an unexpected way through a stranger on the other side of the world.

Samuel Weidenhofer, a social media creator with millions of followers, launched a nationwide effort to help veterans retire with dignity, including a GoFundMe fundraiser for Carl Pflieger that has raised more than $25,000 so far.

"I go around the world spreading kindness," Weidenhofer said.

The effort has now raised more than $2.5 million for 50 veterans nationwide, including nearly $25,000 for Pflieger.

For Pflieger, the moment feels almost unreal, a dramatic shift after years of grinding just to get by.

"It's like you step out of a crisis into something God had planned for you," he said.

His experience also reflects a broader reality. More than 1.1 million U.S. veterans over age 65 are still working, according to federal data, about 14 percent of retirement age veterans.

Now after years of service to his country and years of work to survive Pflieger is finally closing one chapter and starting another, one focused on rest he long thought might never come.

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