Self employed?

I wonder how this lady, who doesn't have a great command of English, came to be selling the Big Issue in a small Scottish town in the rain. What course did her life take?

I was going to ask her where she was from, but after asking for permission to shoot this portrait I was afraid that she'd (wrongly) think that I was perhaps an immigration official.

Maybe I'll find out more next time I pass her.

I bought a copy.