She Used to be Canadian

People say things without thinking that pain us:

"you're not from around here, are you?"
"you sure have a lot of kids..."
"YOU people..."

but the one that wins (for me) was the time
the Canadian attaché introduced me to his wife
"this is Colonel Skinner's wife, she used to be Canadian"

I winced.

Let me say here
that though it has apparently been
the will of Providence that I didn't get to LIVE in Canada,
God wished me to be born there and have the attitudes
of a multicultural, multilingual background.

I have no american documents, except that miserable green card.
The immigrations officer once said
"Why are you still carrying this (green card) around?
I wasn't even born when it was issued!"

So there you have it.
Though it has caused me some tense moments at US immigration,
Lost my husband a couple of jobs,
My spelling is still Canadian.
My attitudes are still Canadian.
I am still Canadian.