Westward. Encounters with Swiss American Women

No sign of jet lag even though she landed in Zurich just a few hours ago. Rosa Schupbach-Lechner comes to Switzerland every year half a dozen times. She is past 80; yet the petite woman with grey-blond hair that comes down to the shoulders looks like 60. Her inquisitive blue eyes seem to ask: What else is there to experience?

The suitcases are not yet unpacked, yet the sprightly woman in a sporty pantsuit is already elegantly offering tea with cookies. “Years ago I came to visit my mother; today I come to meet old friends in Switzerland and relatives in Germany. I feel the need to cultivate my roots in Switzerland and Europe.”

This time Rosa Schupbach-Lechner plans to go even farther east to Singapore. “I want to build up my frequent flyer miles in order to keep my gold card from Miles & More,” she says playfully. As an economist, calculating comes easy for her, and with a roundtrip-ticket around half the world she will reach the required 100,000 miles without any problem.

There is even more on her program: Before flying back to New York she has dates in Germany. “In my mother’s hometown in the Black Forest I will give two talks about my life.”