Background python timer process

I am looking for a simple python process that starts to run in the background that with a loop counts up the minutes. I want to send the a signal to the process gets sent to the process to stop, its stops the counting and returns the calculated count and then ends the program. There may be a number of these opening and running simultaneously. def updateCounter(): while True: timer=timer+1 # wood += 1 [login to view URL](60) if (timeup=true): <<--- listener that receives a signal from outside the program to stop the loop return timer and then end the program break;