Home of all homes

Relocating with the family every three years I have called many places home over the past two decades. Some have remained close to our hearts and we still feel very much at home in Madrid and in Lugano. 

Zürich, however, is home of all homes.

I grew up in this town. I spent the first twenty years of my life in Zürich. I don't return often but when I do the homesickness hits hard. The Brazilians would call it Saudade, a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves.

I love this place and honour the friendships that were born here.

So when a friend called inviting us to a roaring 20's party celebrating their two decades of marriage, I took my hubby by his hand and we were on that Swiss Airways plane destined to Zürich in a flash.

What I did not expect was the tremendous flashback that would whirlwind me back into my teens. All evening I met peers from Middle School and friends from High School. People that shared a part of my path through childhood and whom are forever linked to my time in Zürich.

Over the weekend we managed to reconnect with a couple from Zürich who happend to move to Milano the same time as us where our little boys had attended the same Nursery school... many moons ago!

I enjoyed an extensive brunch with my two best buddies and their families. We resisted to fall into reveries of times gone by wondering how we ended up with our kids being the same age as us when we first met?!? Where have all those years gone?

Without letting the Saudade take over, I am tremendously grateful that I could count on exceptional friendships of various different kinds over the years and decades and that with a bit of effort on both sides we still manage to see eachother - albeit not as often as we'd like. The feeling persists that our time together is never quite enough.

Living far apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side, that our roots will always be tangled and I am thankful for that.

As Marcel Proust said: "Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."