Mother Of The Year

Some people really do need to be dragged out the back and shot:

When Ken Anderson was just 15, his mother, Shirley, made it clear: She didn't want him anymore.

Ken's father, a long-haul trucker, had been transferred from Osoyoos, B.C., to the province's Kootenay region. Although their marriage was rocky, Shirley followed, taking second-youngest son Darryl with her.

Ken was left behind. He had plenty of time to think about it as he wiped bug splatter off car windshields and pumped gas at the local station to make a buck. He says he can't even remember how many couches he slept on, or how he kept himself going. He just knows he never got to go to a prom, finish high school or even think about college.

The way he sees it, he never really had a mother.

On Aug. 3 and 4, Ken, now 46, will face off in B.C. Supreme Court against the woman who gave birth to him.

Shirley Anderson, 71, is suing Ken and four of his five siblings for parental support. The case has been dragging on for years, but the August hearing should complete it.

Shirley has dusted off a little-used section in B.C.'s Family Relations Act that legally obliges adult children to support "dependent" parents.

Seriously how can a law like this even come into force? I was going to ask what kind of person would even have the chutzpah to demand support after abandoning their children but obviously it is the sort of person who abandons their children in the first place.