Twenty years ago. So that put him somewhere around Lynn for age-grouping. Fuck, she wished her phone worked for anything useful here.

"I live in Colorado. Middle America." Even over the years of living there she had stubbornly refused to bend or amend her accent. "But I go back to Northumbria as often as I'm allowed." It was important to maintain her links with her family given she had little intention of settling down to form a new one in Colorado.

"I'd say I'm hopin' it gets easier, but, everyone's got different reasons for movin' away, right?" Ren was perceptive enough to know her relationship with her family was a rare one - a wound that she felt was open with the lack of their presence.