Introduction

Ruth Grover lives in a seaside town in Northern England called Hartleypool. These days she shares the house with a parakeet about the size of your hand. Ruth is 66 years old and is one of those no-nonsense people. She used to be a dispatcher for the Hartleypool Police Department. Her husband, Jeff, he was a cop. About 15 years ago, they decided to take early retirement. The plan was to visit their kids and spend long stretches of time in the Greek islands. And then Jeff was diagnosed with cancer. He died in 2008. Couple years after that, I put widowed on my Facebook account. That seven-letter word