Sunday's Child

Single mom and doting aunt combine efforts to raise a couple of stellar kids

I was at a Web 2.0 talk last night and learned that one of the speakers uses ridiculously long titles when he posts articles to his blog. Apparently long titles are an effective way to drive traffic to your blog. Search engines are always on the look-out for key words. Who knew?

Jordan and Alyson (above-mentioned stellar kids) have both returned for the summer from the cities of their university campuses.

Alyson is making plans to relocate to Calgary in early June, because, you see, Alyson has graduated. That's right -- five years and thousands of dollars later, she is now the proud owner of a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Victoria. She'll stay in New Westminster until she secures a full-time job in Alberta.

Jordan has wrapped up his second year at Carleton and is fast-tracking his Political Science degree with an expected completion date of June 2008. Jordan added last summer's ceremonial colour guard experience at the Governor General's residence to his already-impressive curriulum vitae. He recently scored a full-time job on one of IBM's help desks.

There are people who like to make wide-sweeping statements in an all-knowing way that include the words "kids from broken homes." If you ask them to define "broken home," they'll tell you (in an all-knowing way) that children with divorced parents are kids from broken homes. The fact is, many married couples are in broken relationships and it's not until they separate that the mending begins.

I don't believe for a minute that either Jordan or Alyson would describe their childhood years as "broken" years. Their scholastic achievements and their ability to consistently land sustainable employment are no accident either. After all, they have a doting Auntie Sue and a practical (and maybe even cheap) mother who worked hard, and worked together, to give a couple of young kids the times of their lives.