Another Apostrophe Issue: Who's Son???

Among the many e-mails I've received in the past few days about the tragedy in Haiti, one referred to "a cousin who's son and his family live and work in Haiti."

Fortunately, this young man was able to get his wife and daughter evacuated from the country, and he has remained to help with the recovery. I hope you will keep him and all of those who are suffering and those who are trying to relieve that suffering in your prayers.

Meanwhile, I will use this Grammar Glitch to remind readers about the possessive of the word WHO. If you wish to use WHO to refer to a person and then refer to something or someone that belongs to that person, the proper form is WHOSE.

You would only use WHO'S in place of WHO + IS or WHO + HAS, as in the examples below:

Who's (Who is) in charge of this project?

Who's (Who has) been eating my porridge?

The phrase in the original example at the beginning of this post should read as follows:

...a cousin whose son and his family live and work in Haiti."

NOTE: Sometimes I receive comments from readers who say that the examples in my blog are too simple and elementary. Perhaps so, but as long as I continue to come across them over and over again in print and in business correspondence, I will continue to point them out and try to correct them.