93-year-old gains new lease on life with cupcake business
Not long ago, 93-year-old Ray Boutwell got so bored with retirement. He says he could almost feel the obituary coming. "I thought I was going to pass on if I didn't do something different," Boutwell said.
So now, Ray gets up at 4 o'clock in the morning to unlock his newfound secret to longevity: cupcakes.
Once upon a time, Ray worked in a bakery, but he never opened a business. And yet, here he is, starting from scratch at 93.
His daughter, Rosana, thought this was a terrible idea. "I said, 'No, you can't do that,'" she said.
"Did you think this was dementia?" CBS News asked.
"I was beginning to wonder," she said.
"Well, I could tell that she was deeply concerned," Ray admitted. "And I understood that."
Especially the money part. When pressed, Ray said his house is "mortgaged up to the hilt. Savings gone, too."
"But what the hell is money? Money is nothing," Ray said.
What Ray has instead, is a purpose — and what he believes to be a brilliant business model. He calls his bakery in Voorhees Township, New Jersey, "Ray's Boozy Cupcakes" because some of them are actually infused with alcohol.
But the real chaser is Ray himself. His employees say there's no keeping up with him.
Fortunately, it's also getting his mortgage paid.
"We ran out of everything," Ray said. "They started out buying like one or two — now they buy 'em by the dozen."
That's why he just signed a lease to expand next door, although that won't be for cupcakes.
"Now what do you want to do?" CBS News asked.
"I'm going to make ice cream on the level of Ben and Jerry's. I'm not the average guy."
