It's interesting to think about the possibilities... On one hand, wagon travel to the west didn't totally die off until the late 1890s, so the woman could easily be part of the greatest generation (WW2 generation) and the encounter could've happened quite recently. OTOH the earliest the encounter could've happened would be the end of the 1950s, and if it did happen that early that makes it plausible that her father traveled west at the peak of the Oregon Trail in the late 1840s to 1850s. It's mind blowing how much we've advanced in such a short time.
Presumably the father went West after the Civil War so maybe 1870s/1880s. So the woman was probably born around that time. (Young kids did travel out West on wagon trains though so could have been earlier.) Jet travel probably indicates at least 1960s but I'm guessing "elderly" means quite elderly so probably some time later.
