Westward. Encounters with Swiss American Women

Rosa is appreciated for what she does and is needed. “At my age people in Switzerland have long been tossed on the scrap heap and pushed aside. In America no one tells me ‘you are too old and can go now’. Thank you, America!”

Now Rosa has to leave – Singapore is calling.

Linda Geiser is at home in two worlds – in the East Village in New York as well as in Liebefeld near Bern. When she was 16 years old, she was incurably infected with the “acting virus.” To be on stage – that’s what she wanted. “At that time, being an actress was a rather ill reputed profession, almost like prostitution. A concerned neighbor advised my mother to keep me at all cost from going to the theater; that would be something indecent, and actresses were loose girls.” That was in 1951. Yet theater, the movies, and television are Linda’s great passion to this day.

Linda is on a home visit for a few weeks with her partner John. I am meeting the 73-year old expert in the art of living in her Swiss quarters, in the house of her sister Annemarie Bachofner. As always Linda’s calendar is full to the brim: a meeting at the studio of Swiss TV, doctors’ visits, and lots of invitations to see her Swiss friends. “People are wonderful; I ‘collect’ them, integrate them into my circle of friends. I am a gregarious person and know almost too many people. Because of time limitations I unfortunately cannot see all my friends every time when I am here, and this I regret very much.”