I'll tell you how. An 85 year old woman usually has a lot of calcium loss from their bones, making them more susceptible to being cracked or broken with much less force required. (How many times have you heard of an old woman falling and breaking their hip? How many times have you heard of an 18 year old falling and breaking their hip?)
I have known old women who have fallen and cracked a bone, and didn't realize it until the pain didn't subside and they went in to see a doctor. Being easier to fracture also means less trauma, less pain.
Your fractured ribs at 20-30-40 something does not equate to fractured ribs in an 85 year old woman.
The down side is that it will take much longer for her bones to knit for all of the same reasons that they were more easily broken in the first place.
Time for Ruth to retire...
Old gumpers can break a rib just coughing.
Also, with age comes a higher pain threshold. But, yeah, she needs to retire.
i think this is perfectly plausible, and I also don’t see what the value of a cover story would be?