My dad is an American citizen who has been a permanent resident of Montreal for the past three years (he’s an engineer with Bombardier).
He called me today and one of the things we chatted about was how overwhelmed he was by the response and support he received from just about everyone he has seen in Canada over the past few days. Word that he had a daughter (moi) in New York spread around his office on Tuesday morning, and countless people, some of whom he hardly knows (it’s a big company), phoned, emailed, and stopped by to offer their kind words and thoughts, and waited with him until he got word from my mom that I was ok.
As he has gone about the city since Tuesday, everyone he has encountered has been, simply, great. You can peg him as an American right off (his accent is visible at about 100 yards). Canadians are waving American flags and expressing their concern and grief over the many victims of this tragedy.
You probably have to know my Dad to see how remarkable this is. He often lives in his own little engineering world (we’ve often had to call him to tell him about major world events that somehow passed his notice), and is kind of a classic “grumpy old guy.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard him sound so emotional about anything before in my life. He was choked up as he described the reaction in Montreal, and that is something I have never heard.
I’ve posted in other threads to say that Americans do notice and greatly appreciate the displays of concern from people around the world, but I wanted to make a separate thread to share how this has affected me and my family personally, and to again say thanks to the people of Montreal and Canada.
We are all in this together, delphica. Many of us waited by the phone and e-mail to find out how our friends in the south fared.
All of the flags that I have seen this week are at half-mast. Even the ‘Petro-Canada’ flag.
Everything has changed now. If we’re in for a long, dark night, I am glad we’re in it together.
Seriously, yes, we Canadians have been very much affected by all that has happened this week. I have a cousin in the New York area. My family on my Mom’s maternal side were American, having come from Germany more than a hundred years ago. My best friend is a American, living in Washington State. As a matter of fact, I can make it to the border from my house in an hour or less.
Our local paper said yesterday that between fifty and one hundred Canadians worked in the WTC and at least two were on the planes. I think I can say that this is our disaster too. On Tuesday my husband happened to be awake very early and saw the first reports come in. He woke me and we watched together as the second plane struck and the towers fell. Our son’s teachers spoke to them about it and very nearly dismissed classes. (too many kids with working parents). My church happened to be holding a meeting on Wednesday night anyway, so we didn’t have a special service but we devoted the first part of the evening to prayer and discussion about what had happened. Our Pastor wrote a letter of care and support to the people of the USA and a great many of us signed it. It will be sent to our local US Embassy office. There have also been blood drives in our area and our local certified Rescue Dog and his handler are on standby in case their help is needed. All of our friends and co-workers have spoken of nothing else all week. I know we all share hope that there may still be survivors and sympathy for the families who already know what has happened to their loved ones.
I don’t know how to break this to you but, if you hadn’t noticed, that happens every year up there. Were you to move down here the nights are a lot shorter and there is even daytime. You’d be inside working during it, with it being dark when you start and dark when you leave, but it doesn’t last that long.
Oh! You were being metaphorical!
My love of Canada goes on. It’s a nice place full of wonderful people. Well, not THAT full, and it’s real nice to have that nice, clear field of fire to the north.
Hey it is a pleasure having neighbors like you…even though you don’t put all the letters in your words that you should…and you say zee instead of zed. This whole week has brought all of us closer together, and I know we appreciate what we have in common and we will be willing to defend it when it comes down to it. Thank you to America from a proud Canadian.
