BITTERSWEET DAY

On Friday, I became a Canadian citizen. I'm actually now a dual citizen ... USA and Canada. I was born and raised in the USA and lived there until 2000 when I married a Canadian and moved here. Gary and I had decided a couple of years ago I should take the next step and apply for citizenship. That involved more paperwork, money and wait time. Gary died in February, 2008, following several months of suffering from pancreatic cancer. He wasn't physically there with me on Friday, but he was definitely there in spirit and I know how proud he would have been. It was a very nice ceremony and there were 53 people from 22 countries being sworn in as new citizens.

The Immigration judge was from Ottawa and a very good speaker. New Brunswick is officially a bilingual province so the entire program was done in both languages. The judge was very passionate ... about Canada, about kids, about freedom! I couldn't understand one word of the French part of her speech, but the passion was apparent there as well.

I did fine until we sang O Canada (national anthem) ... then the tears began welling up in me and spilled over.

Such a bittersweet day!

I spent the weekend with Dick (Gary's brother) and Sharon in Fredericton and came back home on Sunday. Back to work Sunday night.

Diane