Anything BUT Politics
A groundbreaking new podcast, Anything BUT Politics, is redefining how we view political figures by focusing on everything about them—except their political careers.
Anything BUT Politics
Life Beyond Politics: Senator Ruth Ward's Global Journey
Ruth Ward's remarkable life story unfolds like a sweeping epic across continents and decades. Born to missionary parents in China during World War II, her earliest memories include watching American planes flying over Peking after her father was tragically shot when she was just seven years old. As Communist forces advanced, her pregnant mother navigated their escape with five children, beginning a harrowing seven-week journey aboard an ocean liner equipped with minesweepers to detect floating dangers.
The voyage brought them to England before settling in Sweden, where Ruth began her career in healthcare. Her professional path eventually led her to Boston as an exchange medical technician at Children's Hospital, where she performed heart catheterizations on newborns. What started as a temporary position became permanent when she fell in love with America—and eventually with a man she met through a chance encounter on an airplane when a flight attendant forced her to switch seats.
After building her nursing career and raising a family in Massachusetts, Ruth moved to New Hampshire in 1995, where she and her second husband physically built their house together—she can point out exactly where every electrical wire lies because she installed them herself. This hands-on approach characterizes everything in her life, from climbing all 48 of New Hampshire's 4000-foot mountains to becoming a certified master weaver juried into the League of NH Craftsmen.
Her path to the New Hampshire Senate began with local planning board service before winning her first Senate race by just nine votes. Now in her fifth term, Senator Ward brings her healthcare expertise, global perspective, and practical problem-solving approach to the Education and Transportation committees. Her story reminds us that behind every political figure lies a tapestry of extraordinary life experiences that shape their understanding of the world and inform their public service.
Listen now to discover how a little girl who escaped war-torn China grew up to become one of New Hampshire's most respected state senators, and what her remarkable journey teaches us about resilience, adaptability, and finding purpose across multiple careers and continents.
Hi everyone, I'm Tiffany Yeti.
Speaker 2:And I'm Tom Preysol.
Speaker 1:And thank you so much for joining us for the latest episode of Anything but Politics. Where we discuss the personal lives of political figures and business leaders, about what makes them tick in their experiences and really not about policy, but makes them tick in their experiences and really not about policy but about the personal side.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and you know, we have the pleasure today of being joined by a senator in her fifth term in the New Hampshire Senate and talk about a life well lived. She represents the western part of the state down to the Connecticut River and you know, I think you've served probably on most of, if not all, of the committees in the Senate but has really, for the last 10 years, been a force in the Senate, and so we want to welcome Senator Ruth Ward.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much. Happy to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're excited that you're here too, and so you know I sense a little bit of an accent and so I know you're not a New Hampshire native per se. But it may be a little further than just Massachusetts, but maybe by way of Massachusetts.
Speaker 3:You want me to go way, way, way back.
Speaker 2:Let's go as far back as you're willing to go.
Speaker 3:We'd love to that's fine. Actually, I was born in China.
Speaker 2:Oh, really. Well, that's much further than Massachusetts.
Speaker 1:It is far back. I mean, Mass is kind of funky sometimes, but you know.
Speaker 3:My parents were missionaries in China and they went out there and my father was killed. When I was about seven and a half, my mother was still pregnant with well, still, she was pregnant with my youngest brother her fifth child, and the communists were moving in and we had to get out of wherever we were. So Peking was the next city, stayed there for, I think, about two years until the war was over, and I remember when the American airplanes came flying in over Peking, I climbed up on the roof of a little shed that was right next to the place where we lived and to watch the airplanes coming in. I really had no idea what was going on. I'm sorry, how old were you? About seven and a half, okay, yeah, so the thing was that we were pretty sheltered, my parents, we didn't know very much. We had no radio at all because no communication was allowed. So any news that we got came from somebody who heard from somebody and had an underground radio. We could find out a little bit.
Speaker 3:When the war was over, the British decided they were going to take their Brits back to England with them and they had some space in the boat, so they offered it to some of the Western people who were there there were Swedes, norwegians, danes. So we were offered a ride from, I think, tien San down to Singapore, and in Singapore they announced that all the males had to get off but the women and the children could stay out. So I had a seven-week boat trip on a big ocean liner. It actually was a boat that was sort of made over to accommodate all kinds of people, and it took seven weeks to get to Southampton in England and from there we took a train to London and London a three-day trip on the North Sea. We went to Denmark and then then rail over Denmark into Sweden where I was met by my aunt.
Speaker 2:Wow, Well, first of all, there's a lot to unpack there. That's a lot that happened, so let's go piece by piece. So you're born in China. Yes, if you don't have to say the year, but it was during the Communist Revolution.
Speaker 3:It was during the World War II, so I don't know when the Communist Revolution took place, but it was the fight between the Japanese and the Chinese.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:And the World War II, and the Chinese and the Japanese were fighting all the time. You never knew who was commandeering a particular area, because there was always this change in power.
Speaker 2:But you said so what brought your parents to China? I? Know you said they were missionaries.
Speaker 3:They absolutely were missionaries. They wanted to be in China, both of them, and convert people from Buddhism, I guess, to Christianity.
Speaker 1:Wow, and was not to ask an indelicate question, but you mentioned your father passed when you were seven. Was that part of the political unrest? He was shot down.
Speaker 3:He was. Yes, we were staying at a small village because we had to move from the village where we usually stayed and he had gone by on the bicycle to visit with them and talk to them and find out what was going on. And on the way home, just outside the wall of the compound, because all the villages had big walls with the big ports, somebody shot him down because supposedly they thought he was Japanese, but anyhow he was shot down.
Speaker 2:Wow, and that left my mother with four kids and one other life, that's a lot Four kids for her and with that having just happened, and so, and a baby, yeah, at some point, I'm sure immediately it was like we got to get out of here.
Speaker 3:We had to. Yeah, because the communists came in every day. They were in there asking questions and Mother didn't want any one of us to take part of it, because it was very important to remember to give the same answer every time.
Speaker 2:Sure Consistency yeah.
Speaker 3:So we did not. Yeah, I guess we were shielded. The parents pretty much said you know, no kids involved, we stayed inside while they were out there talking.
Speaker 1:And so when you were finally able to leave, you were talking about being on this ocean liner. Was it fancy, or was it? Oh?
Speaker 3:no, no, no, it was a ship, a container ship, but they had taken everything out so that the underside was just bunk beds. You know, got three or four beds.
Speaker 2:So it was designed to get.
Speaker 3:They made it so that it could take all of these people back and my mother was lucky. She got a place above the deck with my youngest brother, so she and he were up there. The rest of us would stay downstairs. We knew some people. They kept an eye on us.
Speaker 2:So how often were you downstairs? I mean, were you allowed up on the deck?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, we could move around.
Speaker 2:Okay, I didn't know if you were being, you know if it was secret. You know if you weren't supposed to be on the deck.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, we could move around. Okay, oh yeah, I didn't know if you were being.
Speaker 2:You know if it was secret, you know, if you weren't supposed to be on the ship or no.
Speaker 3:We were, we could move around. Okay, on the ship and move around, we would go up and see Mother and you know things like that.
Speaker 1:So but then you'd go back down Now. Was it kind of smooth sailing, so to speak, or were there challenges being on board the boat?
Speaker 3:Well there, were minesweepers in front of the boat.
Speaker 1:What's that look like? I can't even imagine.
Speaker 3:Well, you have the big ship going down and they have minesweepers ahead of them to take a look and see if there are any mines bobbing up and down on the water, because in that case they had to get rid of them before the boat would hit them.
Speaker 2:That's crazy, and you're witnessing all of this at the age of seven.
Speaker 3:Yes, seven and a half eight, maybe at that point Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 3:No no.
Speaker 1:I just there's so many things to unpack. Did you feel safe? I mean, was it were mean, was food a problem On the boat? Yeah, were you well fed?
Speaker 3:Food was a problem on the boat. We had plenty to eat but some of the stuff was pretty old and we'd have an oatmeal in the morning and I remember little sort of worms were sort of floating around in the milk. But you, you ate it, I could. I don't remember much. We, you know we were fed.
Speaker 2:There was not probably gourmet meals, but we had plenty to eat but you knew what the goal was, and the goal was to get to England and get out of there right, and the goal was to get to England and get out of there.
Speaker 3:Right, and the goal was to get back to Sweden.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's where your parents were from Sweden. Yes, so you get. You get to England and you know you get off. And what does that look like? I mean, what's the, what was the financial situation to be able to say, okay, you know, we're back in friendly territory, but we need to get home.
Speaker 3:Everything was arranged. I don't know who. I think the Red Cross did a lot and I think that the English government did a lot because they had many of their own people, so everything meant I obviously didn't know anything about the finances, but there was no problem moving from one place to another. Everything was taken care of. We went from there to the train that would take us to London and the Red Cross met us and we got a lot of food and goodies from the Red Cross.
Speaker 1:You were probably happy to feel safe at that point.
Speaker 3:You know, I never felt—I think I was too young to really be scared, because I really didn't understand what was going on.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I think that was a big part of it.
Speaker 2:And it says something about your mom, too, that she was able to shield you know, all of you, from having to feel scared.
Speaker 3:Right and having to feel she was incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And she took care of us.
Speaker 1:So she got you to Sweden and you grew up in Sweden.
Speaker 3:Yes, we came into the southern part of Sweden, which is Skåne and Malmö, where they had a big port, because from London we went to Denmark and then train from Denmark to Copenhagen and then the ferry from Copenhagen over to Malmö, and that was the first time I saw ice.
Speaker 3:I'd never, seen ice and snow before either. The winters in China were very cold, but there was never any snow. No ice. People could skate and I could never figure out how they could. The winters in China were very cold, but there was never any snow, no ice. People could skate and I could never figure out how they could skate off from some water. It was just like what is this?
Speaker 2:thing here. Where did you take?
Speaker 3:us, and then we moved further up, where my aunt was closer to Gothenburg, so that's where I spent most of my time in the Gothenburg area before I came over here.
Speaker 1:And then what? I'm just so curious. I've got a couple of. I've got a million questions, but I guess my first one would be what motivated you to leave Sweden then and come over to the United States?
Speaker 3:Well, I had been working and, like so many young people, you like to find somebody that you can go out with, and it was very limited. I felt that every half-decent guy was taken care of by somebody, so I figured I'd let me get out of here and see if I can do something different. So you were looking for a guy. That was part of it, but also I needed to have a total break with whatever else had been going on and just sort of start from scratch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes sense. So how did you get to the United States and what were you studying at that point? What was your area of expertise?
Speaker 3:I wasn't studying anything. I had been working as a med tech.
Speaker 2:She's studying how to find a man, Tiffany.
Speaker 3:A med tech. So I had a job. I came over as an exchange student Okay, Because I had worked several years in the bacteriology and respiratory physiology and I got this guy came over from Boston to Gothenburg and he had this idea about how, about an exchange program, One of you can go over to Boston to Children's Hospital and we'll have one from the Children's Hospital come over here and we were doing lung capacity, heart catheterizations and all those kinds of things. So it started out with a person who has seniority. And then eventually it came down to me and I said, sure, I'll go, yeah.
Speaker 2:Was Boston at that time considered, you know, like we have the best hospital or I say we, I guess that's my Massachusetts roots coming out but Boston has some of the best hospitals in the world. At that time, was it the same?
Speaker 3:I think it was the same. Yes, uh, this guy happened to come from from a children's hospital and knew the director of the heart catheterization lab, so that's where I ended up I did. We did heart catheterizations on newborn babes and children. You know two, sometimes three a day, and that's what I did at children's and then you didn't.
Speaker 1:You decided not to go back to Sweden at the end of your term.
Speaker 3:I asked for an extension on my visa because I wanted to stay a little longer, and by that time I also met somebody, and actually a group of people, that were called the Lazy Eight.
Speaker 2:They had all kinds of, and now you represent District 8. How funny is that.
Speaker 3:And they would ski and they would do all kinds of things. I had parties in the summertime, so that's where I learned to ski. Okay, so I decided to learn how to ski.
Speaker 1:And we're talking downhill.
Speaker 3:Yes, oh, cross country Okay.
Speaker 1:Downhill.
Speaker 3:Cross country. You really don't have to learn. You just put the skates on and go.
Speaker 1:And slide, so you decided to stick around. You're hanging out with the lazy eight and this attractive person catches your eye.
Speaker 3:Yes, and eventually we got married and then my visa ran out Not my visa ran out I didn't have a job anymore. The gal who came over to Gothenburg I don't know what happened to her, she didn't come back either, so so she's still over there. I have no idea where she is. But anyhow, I got married and had three children Not nine three and we moved from Boston now to Lincoln, Massachusetts, Okay, Because we're supposed to have good schools.
Speaker 1:So the kids went there and you have three kids. So what's the breakdown of kids? You've got One son and two daughters. Okay, they wild, they're wild, were they wild, you?
Speaker 3:know they were just typical kids. I think, yeah, you know. When you talked about being 16 years old and always hungry, I would say, mom, there's nothing to eat.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That was a typical thing. You know what I think that exists today, because that's what my kids are always saying and I'm like no, the fridge is full, there's food right there, but they don't like it. It's never what we want and then they go. Can we go to McDonald's? But anyway, sorry, I interrupt so then?
Speaker 3:so then we moved. We lived in Lincoln and moved from one house to another house. Then in 89 my husband died. He was diagnosed with gastric CA and got three months to live.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, it was really fast.
Speaker 3:So then he died and at this point in 89,.
Speaker 2:What are you doing, right, Like, aside from you know?
Speaker 3:you're raising the children. By that time I had gone back to school and I had got my RN and I was working as a nurse at the Newton Wellesley Hospital.
Speaker 2:And what was your specialty area?
Speaker 3:Well, at that point I was just working as a floor nurse and I did a lot of diabetes instruction management instruction. Then I decided that I really needed A little bit more as I went for my master's degree in nursing and then became a nurse practitioner and then worked at the outpatient department at Newtown Wellesley Hospital as an MP, seeing patients and doing things.
Speaker 2:Which is super. I mean, that's got to be super helpful for you, given you know you've got young kids and your husband passes away, but you have the ability to still provide for the family.
Speaker 3:That was one of the reasons I wanted to get back to work. Even though I had worked as a med tech, I didn't have the degree. You can't get very far here without a piece of paper.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I decided, rather than getting a degree in medical technology, I took a look and decided that I'd always wanted to be a nurse. But a guy that I was very much interested in always said only girls with broken hearts would ever consider nursing Really.
Speaker 2:Really yeah, I never heard that.
Speaker 3:I guess you give yourself. You know, you just take care of other people. So I decided, nah, I'm not going to be a nurse.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's also an irony, too, an odd irony about your life, that your dad is assassinated when you're seven years old and then, later in life, you have your own kids and your husband, you know, passes as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but he has passed for natural causes. True, it was. You know, I was a nurse and I was working and I could understand what was going on and I would go out to the rounds and listen to what they were saying, but the progression of what the reality was, and so I knew what was going on. But when he died in 89, the kids were out of college.
Speaker 1:Oh, they were, so they were older oh yeah, they came up, so so then I understand that we have a little bit of a connection, because I was in TV for a long time but you ended up your second husband was someone who was involved in um in in television down in the Boston market, yeah, but that was something I found out afterwards Okay. Oh, so how did you meet him? Yeah, so let's hear that story.
Speaker 2:On the ski slopes.
Speaker 3:No, it's really funny because I had reservations out at Utah that I'd been going to Utah for years to ski. For two weeks I was going out there on I guess was it Delta flight and I always have a window seat because I hate to get up when people need to go to the bathroom. So I'm sitting in my window seat and this woman comes and says I'm sorry. She said you have my seat, and I said no, this is mine. And the stewardess came and a flight attendant came and said would you mind moving? And I said well, fine. So they moved me way back, almost on the end of the plane in an aisle seat, and I never have an aisle seat. So I'm sitting there and they're serving breakfast and I didn't quite finish everything else. So I was sitting there and I hear this voice how come you haven't eaten your breakfast? Don't you know about the starving children in India? Get out and I look up and I said I always thought it was the starving children in Africa. That's how our conversation started.
Speaker 2:And was he sitting next to you?
Speaker 3:No, he was sitting way up someplace. I think he had a middle seat, a window seat or something.
Speaker 2:He just went for a walk and saw you and said I got to go harass that girl.
Speaker 3:He saw my unfinished plate and decided, because he always talks, he can never leave anything. So that's how it started. We just chatted and chatted and then they were going to serve another meal and the flight attendant came and said would you mind moving to the back because we need to serve? So we stood there until time was coming to land in Salt Lake City. We all had to sit down.
Speaker 2:So was he out there to ski as well? Did you continue?
Speaker 3:the conversations. He was out there to ski with another group of people.
Speaker 3:He was going actually to. I can't remember the name of the place, but he was going somewhere else. I was going to stay in Utah Sea Altar, so I knew he was going to ask me for my phone. So I had a card prepared with my name and the phone number. And he asked yes, and he hung back. He didn't go out and got it then. And he asked and yes, and he hung back, he didn't go out and got it. Then, when he should have. And he said how about if I give you a call? And I said fine, and I just said how do I know you? How do I know? And I gave him my business card and he said well, you don't want me to call you at the hospital, do you? And I said there's a flip that over. So you and I said let's flip that over. And then my home phone was on it.
Speaker 2:That's meant we're simple creatures, right? That's right. We don't look at both sides of the business card.
Speaker 1:And this is back when it was probably landlines and not cell phones and whatnot.
Speaker 3:Landlines, that's right, although I was very lucky, I got one of those early satellite phones for $10 a month.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, oh wow, yeah Big black box yeah, did it have a suitcase that you had to carry it around?
Speaker 3:with Just about, but it was pretty heavy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, remember those back in the day.
Speaker 3:But the price was right.
Speaker 1:That is a good price. Anyhow, that's how we met. So did you, I guess. Did you see him in Utah, or did you wait until you came back to Massachusetts? I didn't see him in.
Speaker 3:Utah, because I was saying that he was going somewhere else. Okay, so I skied, I had a wonderful time, and then when I came back, and I think I was probably asleep or something, and the phone rings and he's a voice saying I thought I'd get hold of you and said well, come back. And I said, well, thanks for waking me up.
Speaker 2:So All right, so he comes back, you get married, and now obviously you both were still in Massachusetts, yes, but eventually, and I think you said he had six kids.
Speaker 3:Six daughters, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you do have nine. That's a lot of girls, including your stepchildren.
Speaker 3:You know they were grownups when I married them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 3:So I never felt like I was their mother.
Speaker 2:You just had to remember the names they didn't need me as their mother. So what made you come to New Hampshire and when did you come to New Hampshire?
Speaker 1:I came to New Hampshire in and why that part of New Hampshire?
Speaker 3:It had to be a dark sky because he was interested in stargazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, light pollution.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So we looked around and he'd found the area of where we live now as being pretty dark and I happened to know some people who lived in that town and I scouted the papers and we found this lot on Route 123 and bought it, went up there and then we surveyed it with the surveying equipment and we just checked out. You know where the hills were, because it was totally wooded.
Speaker 2:And then you built the house.
Speaker 3:Then we built the house.
Speaker 2:And you've been there ever since.
Speaker 3:And I and my son-in-law and Fred's cousin, we built the house.
Speaker 2:And when you say he and I, there's not a doubt in my mind that you were out there with the saws, the hammers, the nails.
Speaker 3:That's true.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I climbed it and I know how to use it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Good for you, and I know exactly where the electric lines are in the house.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because we put them in. So you were very hands-on, and that was how many years ago.
Speaker 3:We moved in 95.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you've been here.
Speaker 3:I moved in a little ahead of time. The house wasn't quite finished, but it was enough. I was about to renew my license for Massachusetts and I said I'm not going to go through that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:To renew my car registration. I wanted to change it so I moved up and sold the house that I had in Lincoln and moved up here. So I've been here since November 95.
Speaker 2:And you were retired at that point? Yeah, or were you still working Well?
Speaker 3:I still worked. If you've ever really retired I did some work for the public health department in Massachusetts and I did some diabetes instruction for some places up around Jamaica Plain.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:And other than that, then I sort of stopped. I looked to see if I could work in New Hampshire, but New Hampshire, in its infinite wisdom, decided I was not adequately prepared. I had a nurse practitioner license in adult nursing, but they said my master's was in geriatric nursing. I didn't qualify, so I could go to Riviera and take a course there, and I decided no.
Speaker 1:So I did some other things instead. That makes sense. Now, do you guys have romantic evenings where you go outside and gaze up at the stars, since you're out there and there's no light pollution?
Speaker 3:No, no, no. Actually there is light pollution now because Pat's Peak has a lot of lights on in the wintertime.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, they do, they do and you can just see the sky glow. Yeah, I see that from the other side, on the Concord-Hopkinton side. It's pretty bright.
Speaker 3:But we have been sitting there and watching the meteor showers and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:I've got a very important question what's your favorite constellation? Because I have one.
Speaker 3:You have one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love Orion.
Speaker 1:Me too.
Speaker 2:And I think the only reason I like Orion is because it's the easiest one to find. That's the only one you can find. Every once in a while we'll be driving and I'll say, oh, I think that's a Big Dipper right there. She'll be like how can you tell? I'm like, oh, we've already passed it.
Speaker 3:I think I like that first one that comes out Is that Venus that comes out early.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think Venus does come out early yeah, it's a planet. And there was recently, I think, all the planets were in alignment in the sky.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I read about that, yeah, and too bad, pat's Peak.
Speaker 2:You know it's in the winter, so too much light pollution.
Speaker 3:you couldn't see it? Fred doesn't do very much observing anymore.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:But we do love Pat's Peak, in case they want to sponsor the podcast. Oh, I love Pat's Peak, great skiing.
Speaker 2:I have been there many times, snowboarding, skiing. Love me some Pat's Peak.
Speaker 1:The bar.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's a nice little mountain. I think I've skied there once. I skied from left to the right, then the right to the left and back and I said, no, where else is it? Yeah Well, and then the right to the left and back and I said no what else is there.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, after Europe too, it's probably a little bit different. Yeah, but you're a cross-country skier, is that correct? Yeah?
Speaker 3:I ski cross-country.
Speaker 2:Do you still actively?
Speaker 3:I haven't done anything. Anything I haven't done downhill. I haven't done cross-country skiing. Occasionally I have been known to put my snowshoes on and go off for a walk in the woods.
Speaker 2:That was going to be my question, because I know you were very active in the trails. I think you had at one point adopted a trail to keep it clean. I've seen pictures of you at the top of Mount Washington. I know you love the outdoors.
Speaker 3:I've climbed all the 4,000-footers. Oh, you have, yeah, many of them, more than once. Yeah, I climbed them with my husband, and then I climbed them with the kids, and then I've climbed them again.
Speaker 2:What's your favorite? I was just going to ask that I beat you to it, yeah.
Speaker 3:I don't know, there are so many really nice ones, I guess I like to hike up to Mount Washington and I have done that from both the Crawford Notch and the other side where the train comes going up that several times. I participated in the raising money for the observatory, reached the peak. Seek the peak.
Speaker 1:Oh, is that the race that goes up?
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, that's the race, but it was just a matter of getting up there, yeah that's challenging it is and you see, you think you're almost there and you're not. But that's a nice one. But I've stayed up. Go from Crawford, you stay over at the Lakes of the Cloud Hut and you can hike from there also. That's beautiful, yeah.
Speaker 1:So how did I guess and I know that you've done different things in the community but what was it that prompted you to eventually want to run for Senate?
Speaker 3:I was on the CBA and the planning board for about 10 years, mm-hmm. And I actually at that point I had learned a little bit about the New Hampshire politics and I thought I should try to do something. So I ran for the house against Dan Eaton, who is quite well known and has been in the house just about forever.
Speaker 2:It's a pretty blue district too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course I didn't win. But then I thought, you know, it was sort of interesting. But on the other hand I did no work whatsoever. I didn't know anything. Nobody told me what to do. So I thought if I sent out a postcard and talked to a couple of people, that should be fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, it turns out that's not sufficient. So then, this seat opened up.
Speaker 2:I think Jerry Little became the bank commissioner.
Speaker 3:He was only there for one year. Bob O'Dell had been there for 10 years before him.
Speaker 3:And so the gals called me up and said you know how about running for the seat? And I said you've got to be kidding. I said I can't do that. He said oh no, no, no, no, that seat is open and they will help you. And I said how? And said well, we'll get you somebody who can tell you what to do and and help you to to do this thing. I said okay, if you help me, then I'll do it. I had met them when I was doing a little bit of work for carly fiorina. Oh, okay, so I got to know a couple of them and they were very active in politics. So that's how that started.
Speaker 1:I did work for the Carly Fiorina campaign when she was running for president back in the day, so we're probably working together. We didn't even realize it. We might have done that, yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, no, it's going to be Carrie Marsh was one of them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Carrie.
Speaker 2:Didn, but yeah, no, it's got to be. Carrie Marsh was one of them, yeah.
Speaker 3:Carrie and didn't Deirdre? Did she work? Yes, deirdre, and Jane Millarick was part of that, and the gal with the double name, bailey Yvonne.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes. Yes, I know what you're talking about. She was a state rep for a number of years, yeah right. But so okay. So it must have been a daunting task, right to go from sending out a couple postcards to now running for the New Hampshire Senate. But, the Ruth Ward, I know never backs down from a challenge.
Speaker 3:So they invited me to meet this person who they thought could help me, and it was Carrie Marsh, chuck and I, and this guy called Pericles.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And we chatted and finally, at the end, I said, well, what are you going to do? Are you going to help me or not? And he says, oh, okay, I'll do that. So we set up an appointment and I met with him and I had to have a stump speech. Yep, and I sat down. He said, okay, get up, say it again. And I must have gone up and down five or six times to get this stump speech prepared and saying it without faltering. And that's how the whole thing started.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And then knock on doors. That was hard work.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's hard work, I bet.
Speaker 2:But it's fun, right, because you get to meet a lot of people and you hear about what the issues are.
Speaker 3:You certainly do. But then you always need somebody who can drive with you, because I don't like to drive and look for the numbers at the same time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So that's. And then I won.
Speaker 2:I had a primary Yep, I remember, but you won and then I had a primary Yep, I remember, but you won and then but how many votes? I don't remember how many votes you won by.
Speaker 3:Nine.
Speaker 2:Was it only nine?
Speaker 1:Yeah, nine votes, wow that's, and I'm assuming there was a recount with nine votes. Yes, there was a recount, we both lost the vote.
Speaker 3:It was still nine and I guess he decided he wasn't gonna challenge me anymore. So he said fine, we'll do that.
Speaker 1:And what's the best part about being in the Senate?
Speaker 3:It's a good group of people and I think that I have learned so many things because you get involved with the bills and they put you on committees and there are things that you know nothing about. They put me on education for day one. That's where I have been.
Speaker 2:That's a tough committee.
Speaker 3:Education and transportation. I've been on those two committees.
Speaker 2:Especially given your background, you would think you would be more geared toward health and human services.
Speaker 3:I felt I had had enough of it. I didn't want to deal with bills, but I still do it now, obviously, since we're voting on some of those things, and I feel that I have a pretty good understanding on what the issues are, just because of my experience in the health care field, but you know what's interesting so? You said day one you were put on education and transportation. That never took me off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to say you are still on those committees.
Speaker 3:I am still on those committees. And education. Obviously I didn't have a degree in education, but I have learned so much about the whole school system, the funding mechanism and all the issues that take place in education that I would not have known if I had not been a senator. And it's the same with transportation. But that's some things in transportation. That's, I think, fairly straightforward. It's not huge controversial issues.
Speaker 2:No, however, I will say I have a question for you. Okay, Did you solve the issue that prevented you from becoming a nurse in New Hampshire?
Speaker 3:No, I didn't pursue it.
Speaker 2:No, but they have solved it right. I don't know I don't believe it's an issue anymore.
Speaker 3:Legislatively? Yeah, maybe not, but it was just like when there's bureaucracy, you have a piece saying that you have done that, even if you have practiced in one area forever. And I could still do geriatric nursing and I still understand it. But that was not my. I didn't have the right piece of paper.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I feel pretty confident saying I think we fixed that, okay, good yeah what I should do now is to yeah. So you can go back and be a nurse.
Speaker 1:Because you have so much free time. That's right.
Speaker 2:But I will say once a nurse, always a nurse. And I say that because you know, my grandmother was a nurse and then, when my grandfather passed away, she went and volunteered in the same department in the hospital that she worked in before so once a nurse always a nurse.
Speaker 3:I mean there are certain things you learn and it just becomes part of you and react a certain way to things.
Speaker 2:So I have a question. So we spent a lot of time talking about you know you spent time in Sweden, obviously. You spent time in China, sweden, then you came to the United States. Do you go back to Sweden at?
Speaker 3:all. Oh, I've been back many times.
Speaker 2:Do you still have family over there?
Speaker 3:Right now I only have a brother.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:My mother has died and two of my brothers have died, but I do go back and I am hoping to see my brother this summer. I was going back and I was sitting in the in the lounge when they called me and said you can't go and I said why not? Because you can't get into Sweden, because they were still in COVID oh, wow he said you can stay in Munich if you want, but you can't get from Munich to Sweden.
Speaker 3:So, I turned around and went back home. Oh wow, that was my last effort. But I do have that one brother and he just lost his wife, so I'll see him. I have a sister in Wisconsin.
Speaker 2:Oh, so she came to the United States too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, after I came, she came over Okay.
Speaker 1:So I'm just wondering because you have the nurse experience, so obviously you know how to help people, and we had Senator Sue Prentice on and she has EMT experience have you ever kind of been called into action where you were able to use those skills to help make a difference? Not really, no.
Speaker 3:No, and I've never been in an accident, so kind of think what I was needed to do anything. But I always, I tell you, when I used to have tickets to the Boston Symphony and I was always, every time I went in and sat in my seat I was always looking around to see where should I hold this person if something happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know where is the easiest way to get somebody out of their seat. So I'm sort of always looking at that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's just like. I know a bunch of firefighters who every room they go in, they look for the exits, right.
Speaker 1:Training. So you've had such an incredible life. I mean China and through England to Sweden, to the United States, to Massachusetts, to New Hampshire. I mean what an incredible life story.
Speaker 3:You know, sometimes I have a hard time remembering or not remembering but thinking that I've been all of those places.
Speaker 1:I mean it's remarkable. And do people ever because I do detect like a Slade accent sometimes say, hey, where are you from? Yeah, they do. And then you say Sweden, right, yeah, sweden, yeah.
Speaker 2:Did you travel a lot, like outside of? You know Sweden, like you know in your adult life did you do a lot. I've been to Australia Did you like it, I've been to.
Speaker 3:Germany.
Speaker 2:How big are the spiders in Australia? I hear they're huge.
Speaker 3:I didn't see one of them that was on a solar eclipse trip.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow is right.
Speaker 3:To go see the full eclipse the solar eclipse. Yeah, wow, and I've been to I think it was Kentucky for another solar eclipse and I have that picture in my office.
Speaker 1:Did you see the one here that just took place? No, I didn't bother with that, are you kidding? So you went all the way to Australia. Oh, my goodness, really. Yeah, I spent a week.
Speaker 3:in Australia it would be 10 days or something like that.
Speaker 2:Did you like it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was incredible scenery. Scenery did whatever hiking we could do it. We did that and saw some of the area. But you know, obviously it's another big country and it'd be fun to go back and take a look at the rest of it are you going to go to the upcoming eclipse?
Speaker 1:I believe it's going to be in like spain, portugal, in a year or something, something like that I'll have to ask okay. Are you an eclipse seeker? I am not. My husband was oh okay, that makes sense Meteorologist.
Speaker 3:So if he wants to go and look, I'll go with him.
Speaker 2:That's great. So now outside, we talked about some cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, downhill skiing. I also know, I believe, believe you are a master weaver.
Speaker 3:That's true. I have a master weaver certificate.
Speaker 2:Another piece of paper.
Speaker 3:Another piece of paper and I'm juried into the league.
Speaker 2:So what does that mean? To be juried into the league of New Hampshire Crafts?
Speaker 3:You have to show your work and it has to be good enough to be sold in the league.
Speaker 2:So what exactly help me understand when you say weaving, is it like rugs, is it tapestry, or am I like out in left field?
Speaker 3:and it's none of those things. No, you're not out. The tapestry is something very different.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Do you know what a warp is?
Speaker 2:No, To be honest, no Warp speed. Yeah, that's what I was just thinking.
Speaker 1:I hear James Kirk going. You know warp speed, scotty, that's right.
Speaker 3:The warp is the thing, the big long thing, and the weft is the thing that goes back and forth. Okay, on a regular weaving on a loom, you change the shed of the shafts that you have because you put the warp through it, and then you can get different openings, and that's where you put the weft through Tapestry. You have a fixed frame, okay, they weft through Tapestry. You have a fixed frame, okay, and you pretty much manually do the pictures that you're going to have, because tapestry is most often pictures.
Speaker 3:Okay, it isn't just like stripes?
Speaker 1:Oh, that makes sense.
Speaker 2:So what did you weave? What was your specialty?
Speaker 3:I didn't have a specialty I like. I wove a lot of scarves, table linens. I did a lot of things with overshot weave, which is typically in New Hampshire, but this is just a four shaft thing, but it's I have some of those, and if you're juried, does that mean your work is on display somewhere? Not on display, but I could sell it. I can put it in the league.
Speaker 1:Do you have a website that we should promote or anything? Ruthwardcom.
Speaker 3:No, I don't Again. I have not woven anything since I became a senator. The thing with weaving is that you have to be able to sit at it and have a nice smooth weave. You can, if you get interrupted next time you come, that sort of balance is gone so what you do when you take something. You hold it up against the light and if you see that it isn't, you can see if there are spaces in it.
Speaker 2:And that's an indication someone took a break.
Speaker 3:Could be so, for example, if you have something like that, you like to be able to stick with it, stay there until it's finished.
Speaker 1:So if you're weaving, how long would a weaving session be? Would it be like an hour, eight hours?
Speaker 3:No, a couple of hours, probably A couple of hours okay. But once you get into sort of the swing of things, you know you don't want to take too long a break because then you sort of lose that that makes sense, right, I think any kind of creation too.
Speaker 1:Your brain starts to really focus and you don't want to have to go away and then come back because it takes so long to get back in that mindset.
Speaker 3:And when you talk about the loom, the loom will have. The simplest loom is just two shafts, one up and one down, one up and one down.
Speaker 3:That's probably why your shirt is there, because, no, it's just a very simple weave you have over under, over, under, over, under, over under the whole way. But if you want to do any patterns then you need to have more than two shafts, unless you do it by hand and pick up something. Once you work with two yarns, you have a base yarn that goes over under, over under, and then you have the pattern yarn that comes in another shed.
Speaker 2:It's fascinating it's fascinating how much information you have and how much expertise you have across all of these different fields. I mean, I feel so unaccomplished right now, oh Tom.
Speaker 3:It's just fun to have different interests. I think yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, it's been such a pleasure getting to know you. I mean, I've learned so much. So thank you so much for your time You're very welcome and your service and coming on the podcast. We appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you have a great story and I've learned things. I've known you for the 10 years or you're in your fifth term that you've been in the Senate and I'm constantly learning new things about you and I'm going to come to your office and check out that picture.
Speaker 1:You should, it's really nice. Yeah, me too, and I want to see weaving.
Speaker 2:Yeah, me too, and I want to see weaving. Yeah, do you have any of your artwork Weaving?
Speaker 3:pictures. Yeah, I actually have two things that go over the bookcases that I wove.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:We're coming over. Well, thank you, Senator, You're welcome anytime. Thank you so much for coming. You're very welcome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and thank you to everybody for listening and watching the latest episode of.
Speaker 1:Anything but Politics.
Speaker 2:All right, I'm Tom Preysall.
Speaker 1:I am Tiffany Eddy, and we are broadcasting from our studio in downtown Concord and we really appreciate you listening, so thank you for joining us.