Well, hello, fellow Atlantic Canadian! You're lucky at leas tin that you had both parents and a grandmother trying to support you. When my ex and I split, it was just me and my family. My mother was a complicated woman and our relationship wasn't exactly warm, but she would never, ever see her grandchildren go without. Honestly, she never saw me go without.

I'm not sure about this vitutuization of poverty. There's no glory in it. None at all.

As for the gut punch, that's fine, it made me think and feel, that's what good writing does, you did your job.