Westward. Encounters with Swiss American Women

“We live modestly, and as I get older, I am eating less and more simply. I write, talk to myself, reinvent the world anew and then take it apart again. Thoughts dance around in my head; at times they are bats, at times precious stones.” Then Linda says almost to herself: “Actually, I should be disconsolate that I have not become famous. As an actress, wouldn’t this have been the goal? Strangely, in the course of my life, fame has ever more lost its attraction for me.

“As a young girl I wanted to become a world renowned star – I pinned the ad for Lux soap with Judy Garland and Greta Garbo on the wall above my bed: I wanted to be like them, look like them, wear my hair as they did, and appear in ads. Thank God, I lost this kind of ambition. Other values gained importance like having friends, remaining healthy.

“I don’t have a good health insurance and can’t afford to be sick.” Thoughtfully she says, “many of my colleagues have died, but luckily some are still here. I always enjoy to see them again – Stephanie Glaser, Hans-Heinz Moser, Peter Arens, and others.” Does Linda still have unfulfilled wishes? “Several. Let’s wait and live. I think that being on stage will be open to me for many years yet – playing character parts, older women with bats in their heads, or very old women with precious stones in their heads. My fondest wish is to play a sharp country woman, a Swiss Miss Marple who unwittingly becomes a detective and turns all of Switzerland, or at least half of it, topsy-turvy.”