This is the point in work. You get it right, or you don't do it. Everything depends on your getting it right. In Newfoundland, meeting people was as easy as breathing. And she never felt shy about hanging around.
Nobody notices older women.
It's assumed that they're just there. Especially when your main desire in life is to find out things and overhear. I can sit in a diner or a cruddy little restaurant halfway across the country, and there will be people in the booth next to me, and because I'm a woman of a certain age they'll say anything as if no one were there. People will say absolutely outrageous, incredible things. I once overheard people talking about killing someone.