85-year-old Navy veteran delivers food in Lee County to pay bills

LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK)—An 85-year-old Navy veteran has come out of retirement to deliver food across Lee County just to make ends meet.

Herbert "Bert" Coffen starts each day by grabbing his keys and waiting for the Uber Eats app to chime with his next delivery. He has been working as a delivery driver for about a year.

"I am an Uber Eats delivery driver. I'm 85 years old, and I have been doing this for about a year," Coffen said.

Since April, Bert and his wife Rachel have been picking up and delivering meals throughout the county. On a good week, he can earn between $100 and $150.

"I work five days. I can make, I don't know, close to 100, $150 on a week, if it's a good week," Coffen said.

Coffen's daughter reached out to WINK News reporter Camila Pereira after seeing a video of a 78-year-old DoorDash driver go viral last week. She said she saw her father in him because Bert also had to come out of retirement to make ends meet.

"We had our retirement come down here. We were going to live the place free and clear, and one thing after another, one medical bill and another medical bill, and just start chipping away at the money we had," Coffen said.

The couple is on a fixed income, but mortgage payments, medical bills, prescriptions, and hurricane recovery costs kept piling up. Coffen said no one wanted to hire an 85-year-old, so Uber Eats became his only option.

"Uber Eats became the only thing that I could do. Nobody wanted an 85-year-old as an employee," Coffen said.

Coffen said his dream of comfortably retiring just doesn't feel possible anymore. While Uber Eats is helping him stay afloat, he knows it's only prolonging the inevitable.

"Uber's saving me to a degree. It's prolonging the inevitable, but it's better than nothing. I just can't sit here and do nothing," Coffen said.

What keeps him going is his granddaughter, Alexis. He said she is his joy, his luck, and his life.

"To see her little face, you know, and to love me the way she does, that's it," Coffen said.