Our life as a blended family began at Christmas 2014, when Jim McKee and his son, Dualta, then aged 13, made the move from their home 200 miles away to join me, my children – Jordyn, Jade and Adam, as well as their newborn brother, Sonny James. It was a huge move, one driven by Sonny’s birth, and a big change for us all.
I’d been a single parent since 2010 after my marriage broke up, and Jim, who grew up here in Northern Ireland – where I’m from too – had been raising his son alone in the rural West of Ireland for many years.
Life was busy for us both, juggling freelance creative careers with single parenthood and we weren’t looking for love, but Jim, who works as…