An old clock- maker had been put out of business by the new electronic watches. He was out of work and destitute. One day walking along a back alley in town he noticed a pile of old clocks on a dump heap behind a jewelry store. They were clocks of all shapes and sizes and colors, in every degree of disrepair. 

He begged the jeweler to give them to him and let him try to get them going again. So with a couple screwdrivers and some oil he set to work, and began to pick their insides. Suddenly, one of them began to tick. He polished the case tenderly and set it upon a shelf. One after another, the clocks responded to his seemingly magic touch. They began to tick-to come alive. Only a few were hopelessly beyond redemption. 

Old clocks are symbolic of old age itself. It must have a purpose in life- and then the old heart will tick again, long after it is supposed to have stopped. -fin-