Sorry, eh?

Happy Thanksgiving to our American neighbours who I bet a Beaver Tail pastry couldn’t tell us when Canada’s Thanksgiving is.

Canadians know so much about the United States, yet Americans know so little about Canada. 

Last week I was in a North American meeting and the Chair said ‘Canada?’, as though she was questioning our existence. 

We are a real country where poutine is available on most menus, snowmobiling is designed for winter travel and recreation, our famous coffee shop is named after a hockey player, we have a city named Moose Jaw and we apologize for apologizing. 

Being known as the country with manners is not the worst stereotype in the world. The word sorry is said more times than ‘eh’ and for different circumstances. Such as:

• The ‘excuse me’ sorry – “sorry, can you tell me which aisle I can find the Ketchup chips?”
• The ‘wasn’t listening’ sorry – “sorry, can you repeat that? I zoned out as soon as I heard the name Trump.”
• The ‘brutally honest’ sorry – “sorry, Toronto is beautiful, but there is more to Canada.”
• The ‘cut you off’ sorry – simple wave from the driver.
• The ‘interruption’ sorry – “sorry, but you dropped your toque.”
• And of course, the ‘apology’ sorry – “I’m so sorry.”

Sorry, if I’ve forgotten any.

What’s even more unique about Canadians is that we apologize even when it’s not our fault… 

In Snooze it or Lose it, I allegedly did something wrong. Today, I did, but was apologized to.

Two weeks ago we were declared on outbreak so therefore, all of the residents were required to isolate to their rooms. This also meant visitors were no longer welcome, recreation therapy groups were no longer welcome, but cute contractors were welcome.

Each time staff entered a resident’s room, PPE (personal protective equipment) was worn. This included a mask (obviously), shield or goggles, gown and gloves.

We started calling some of the Resident Care Aides ‘Minions’ with their yellow gowns and goggles the size of their head, (but they still had two eyeballs). 

One afternoon, I gowned up and entered a resident’s room to set up a video call with her family. 

She was all ready to go when I realized I had grabbed the wrong floor’s Ipad. I couldn’t remember the family member’s contact on Skype, which meant I would need to exit the room, dispose of the PPE and then start all over again.

I contemplated singing, reverse, reverse, to see if she caught the Cha Cha Slide reference, but instead I explained what happened and said I would need a few minutes to get it all sorted out. 

You won’t believe what the resident did next. She apologized. 

She looked at me with teary eyes and said, “I am so sorry about this.”

I smiled (even though she couldn’t tell) and informed her it was by no means her fault and that I’m a wreck on the daily. 

She laughed and said, “then why did I feel the need to apologize!?”

Well because you’re Canadian, my friend.