An Odyssey of Memories: a Perfection of the Present

Five months ago our family lost my father.  Not lost, actually, because in truth we found so much of him and ourselves in his last days.  (Even his nurses found new words, new ways to reach their own loved ones through his example).  While his body died, his outsized impact, his oft-repeated expressions, his smile, his constant fund of jokes, his example of vigorous embracing of whatever life sends ones way; these stay with us.  For such a life-affirming man, our grief could not long be for him, who enjoyed every last moment of his long life and whose great heart failed mechanically but never in all the ways of connection and laughter. Instead, we grieve for ourselves and the simple missing because he had filled us with so much important love.

He did, however, leave the love of his life, my mother, the uncharted task of reconciling her long-standing independent pursuit of her own interests and talents with the loss of her buffer from his more social and worldly links. She was suddenly bereft of the daily cocktail before dinner and the sharing of news, accomplishments, and plans.  She was left to do business and finance and no longer the nursing and managing of his care that kept him alive and vital for so long.

So how to mark the importance of his loss, our recovery from all the hard work of his final days, and embrace the best of his legacy? By celebrating his old world charm, his new world sense of adventure, and the memory of many visits to one of the most beautiful places on earth; a trip to Glion, Switzerland.

Coffee at Riverside Cafe, Geneva

Blessed with great genetics and disciplined with sensible living habits, my 88 year-old mother braved the overseas flight and talked me into a walk along the lake front and an afternoon espresso in Geneva before ending our 36 hour travel day.  Her flawless French and German (mine far less flawless)  allowed us to immerse ourselves immediately in the languages of Switzerland.

The next day, it was on to the mountains, via a train ride to Montreux. Hotel Victoria perches at 3000 feet above the southern end of Lake Geneva in the village of Glion.  No matter that it is a world class old-style European hotel with outstanding copious food; the views from the room and the elegant dining veranda themselves are worth the challenge of getting there…

View from our room

The hotel, known for its high quality of service, the distinctive mélange of antiques and art set in spectacular mountain scenery is an example of the kind of travel that my parents and their parents always enjoyed. It is fine, European, slow-paced enjoyment.

Rose walk at Hotel Victoria

  

Chateau de Chillon

The writer in me savored the view of the medieval castle of Chillon, first built a thousand years ago. Its 16^th century history prompted Lord Byron’s famous poem Prisoner of Chillon and it was one of the settings of  Henry James’ Daisy Miller.

We spent our single rainy day perusing the tourist stores in Montreux, readying itself for the thousands of people attending the International Jazz Festival the following week.  (Leonard Cohen, African jazz, Salsa, Green Day just to name a few!!!) While sorry to miss this world-class festival, we retreated to our mountain aerie and prepared for the next day’s adventure. 

With walking sticks and a picnic lunch, we embarked on an excursion via a rack and pinion electric railway to the summit of Rochers de Nay, at 6700 feet, another 3000 feet above Glion in elevation. The Rochers de Naye (French, lit. "rocks of Naye") lie on the watershed between the Rhone and the Rhine rivers.

Chemin de fer Glion–Rochers-de-Naye

Edelweiss!

Aside from a marmot zoo (seriously…) this mountain top spectacle came with an alpine flower botanical garden and a changing skyscape alternately hiding and revealing the Sarine valley below and the next alpine peaks.

Yes, I did hike a quarter of a mile on a rocky trail at 7,000 feet!

Determination, arduous work, rewarding beauty; our adventure to this summit was a fine metaphor for the way my mother lives her life, and a fine example of just how she does it; one foot in front of the other with persistence.

Snow, sun, clouds all at once...

The village of Glion, with its quaint houses, and long history as a resort is also home to Hill House International School.  With its central campus in London, the school in Glion provides language immersion, enrichment and holiday recreation for its students.  We happened upon a flier for a Sunday evening concert by the girls’ choir and joined other lucky audience members for a beautiful performance by this talented group.

Church where we heard the concert

Then came the visitors; my father’s long-time business associate Paul and his partner Enzo.  They were driven from their home in Solothurn by a young German man, David,  and the five of us made an excursion to Evian, across the border in France. We had a delicious lunch at the Hotel les Cygnettes right on Lake Geneva. Yet another delectable meal was capped by coffee on the veranda of the Royal Hotel on a hill above Evian.  Meeting and catching up with these long-time acquaintances (in German… David spoke no French and little English) was an interesting sharing of cultural, personal and political perspectives. (Enzo is originally Italian!) Missing were the raft of jokes my father would surely have told, but it was a warm and delightful time.

The sitting room at the Royal Hotel

The pool with a view at Hotel Victoria

After another day of walking, swimming and enjoying Hotel Victoria, our long journey back to the U.S. began with the train to Geneva and an overnight visit with our friend Alex. We met him at his office at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.  It was sobering to hear of his work and the work of the Commission in the increasing number of tortured places in the world where people have become refugees. It was challenging to reconcile the idyll we’d just experienced for the last five days with conditions Alex described.

As we headed over the ocean for home, I was deeply grateful for the opportunity to savor our family’s past and enjoy the present with my mother in such comfort and splendor.  Darkness, change and light will follow one upon the next in our lives.  And that’s ok…