Swiss Family Connections Nutured

My dad's mother (my "Nana") emigrated from the village of Gordevio, Switzerland in her teens (twice -- but more on that story later) and though she never returned to her homeland as an adult, she kept up correspondence with relatives there. Dad inherited these correspondence connections. In 1977 dad planned his and mom's first ever trip to Europe -- on a multi-country guided tour along with one of mom's sisters, the sister's husband and a family friend. Because of the controlling nature of the guided tour, the closest they were going to get to Gordevio was the much visited city of Lucerne (currently about 2 hours from Gordevio -- then probably more). Dad wrote to the Gordevio relatives to tell them of his plans -- but was not sure whether circumstances would allow for any personal contact. Mom and dad tell of their excitement when Giglio, his wife Gemma and their then son-in-law met them at their Lucerne hotel and took them for a fondue meal -- during which they were overwhelmed by the warmth and love shown them. This meeting -- nutured by the extra effort of Giglio and Gemma to seek out mom and dad during their tour -- really planted the initial seeds of warm and loving contact inspiring mom and dad to want to return again and again to Switzerland. Over the following 16 years, mom and dad returned 3 more times -- in these times proceeding directly to Gordevio -- the last time being in December 1993 - now 14 years ago. In addition to mom and dad's trips to Switzerland, some of the relatives there visited mom and dad in California over the years -- and the family connections stayed strong. Dad describes his contact and visits in detail in his autobiography "This is My Life" beginning on page 115. One of dad's paragraph's includes this: "The memories of the glorious visit in Gordevio coupled with the photographs we took, constantly remind us of some of the happiest times in our lives."

While I have seen pictures of several of the Swiss cousins in California, Deb and I only had the opportunity to meet Giglio and his daugher Anna when they traveled to California. They visited us when we were living in Diamond Bar -- so the date would have been sometime between 1983 and 1989.

Of my brothers and sisters, only Jane and Todd have had the opportunity to visit Switzerland. Todd's visit was very short but Jane's was for a longer time -- and in 2005 when I was planning Deb and my first ever trip to Europe, Jane's detailed and most current knowledge of the cousins and the area were tremendously helpful to my planning and making connections there. She wrote me some detailed letters and sent a package of materials and maps, all of which were invaluable in preparing for the trip. And her son Drew, who has relatives from his father's side of the family in the nearby town of Bellinzona -- and who has traveled frequently to the area -- was very helpful in reassuring me that the logistics of the trip (like driving there) would be easy (he was right).