I met a really nice woman the last time I was in the chair at Red River Trade Company.
Her name is Jasmine and she came in so her little daughter could get a hair cut from the hair-dresser in residence.
Jasmine was born in Thunder Bay and has recently moved back, in order to be closer to her family.
Before becoming a mother, Jasmine lived in Toronto. She worked at the Ford Oakville assembly complex as part of the H-vac maintenance team.
I actually have no idea what that means but obviously Jasmine is incredibly gifted. She’s intelligent and knows how to work with both her mind and her hands. She is a woman who tackles the big labour-intensive tasks and gets the job done every time.
In additional to mechanical studies and engineering, Jasmine studied construction techniques at Confederation College. She is a certified carpenter, brick layer, and land surveyor.
Up until quite recently, Jasmine stayed home with her young daughter. Now she’s a working woman, doing land surveying all over the countryside.
She hikes through the trees getting into all kinds of precarious situations, making sure that property lines and boundaries are where they are supposed to be. Jasmine is getting super muscular and super tan!
Right now, in addition to her challenging day job, Jasmine is also working her way through a custody battle, and figuring out, day by day, the challenges of raising a daughter with autism.
The silver lining of these struggles is that Jasmine has incredible help and support from her parents. She gets to pursue a career and know that her daughter is well cared for while she’s at work.
It’s not a life without difficulties, but Jasmine is amazing and she’s making it work. She is definitely a Wonder Woman warrior.