Thank you, to my dear friend and colleague, Suzanne Nourse, from The Protocol School of Ottawa for doing this lovely piece on our friendship…a gift that has enriched my life!

Friendship

You know the feeling – you’re feeling a little down, the phone rings, and you hear the caring voice of a dear friend. Smiles all around.

That’s the relationship between Professional Courtesy and The Protocol School of Ottawa. Well, that’s how it started; Professional Courtesy and The Protocol School of Ottawa. Now it’s a valued friendship between Karen and Suzanne.

Over the years we’ve consulted each other over etiquette issues, traded notes, collaborated on seminar material, proofed each other’s work, and listened. It’s the listening that took a mutual professional respect to the rare and enviable place of true friendship.

Like most friendships, we’ve laughed, cried, and surprised each other during conversations. We’ve had lunch together and prepared dinner together. We e-mail, Skype, phone, send surprise packages, and exchange book and movie lists. We know each other’s families. We know each other’s strengths.  We know each other’s weaknesses.

We have great fun compiling lists of differences since Karen is American and I’m Canadian. I can hear Karen smiling at my oot and aboot accent. I suppress a giggle at her roof and mauve pronunciations. She probably thought I couldn’t spell during our first few email exchanges. I put a u in a lot of words (honour/honor, neighbour/neighbor). Here’s a sampling of our fun differences list:

Karen                                                                                        Suzanne                      

°F                                                                                                            °C

sofa                                                                             chesterfield/couch

zee                                                                              zed

“What are you talking about?”                                    milk in bags

miles                                                                            kilometers

dollar                                                                           loonie

President                                                                     Prime Minister

movie stars                                                                 royalty

center                                                                          centre

check                                                                          cheque

4 downs (football)                                                       3 downs

zip code                                                                       postal code

We always look forward to our next communication, whatever form it may take.

We value and respect each other’s opinions.

We cherish our cross-border friendship.

We hope to meet one day.