Work Widows

I have the sneaky suspicion I've written this post before, or something very similar.

Having installed a new messenger program on my computer, I now have access to several of my accounts, including facebook, through one portal. It also makes a fun sound and flashes the login of a person when they come online.

If you're anything like me, you have a giant pile of "friends" on facebook who appeared out of your past, added you to their list, and that was that. It's sometimes interesting to look at their pictures or read their crazy status updates, but you don't communicate regularly.

So I have all these contacts. With this nifty program, I get to read status updates when my "friends" log in, providing a distraction from work (and most likely leading to errors, sorry to my boss who may be reading this).

This is a post about the nifty program, right?

Wrong.

It's about all those little status updates from my Maritime (mostly female) counterparts. Most of them are struggling with long distance relationships and raising families alone.

Why? Because the other half of their relationship is in Alberta.

It's now a sad fact of life in the Maritimes that, in order to support their family or to even survive, one part of a couple must move away. Living expenses are astronomical in Alberta, and moving the entire family can be difficult, so someone goes away.

The length of trip differs. I know people who fly home every two or three weeks, and some who are only home every six months. Some live in camps; others stay with Maritimers that are more permanently settled.

This trend is creating problems at home. On a local level, the young capable people are being drained away. Volunteer organisations are suffering, schools have difficulty recruiting parent helpers, and it is becoming increasingly hard to find a family doctor.

On a larger scale, while most people do what they can, the fabric of society is altered. Some single parents are overwhelmed. Are there enough resources and support for them?

What is it like to have your husband, wife, boyfriend or girlfriend absent for weeks on end? How lonely it becomes.

In the long term, it simply isn't possible to have so much of the population relying on income from such a distance. What is being done to boost NB's economy?

The current recession wasn't a blow to the Maritimes. They've been in recession for years.

The provincial Liberals want people to stay. At Christmas, television commercials obviously targeting this mobile work force pleaded for NBers to stay home. But is it possible?

I am not one of these working widows, but I do live outside the Maritimes in order to pursue an adequate income. I don't have any suggestions or miracle cures for this problem.

I simply wanted to state that we shouldn't have to be work widows, or expatriots, in order to simply survive.