Author Archives: marerobster

They couldn’t be prouder if they were high school graduates – these two little boys who’ve just spent their first afternoon in Kindergarten. Solemnly Fynn walks home with his bright orange security band, as if he was wearing a graduation … Continue reading →

What struck me when Markus was reading his father’s eulogy was the tremendous change that Hans Stamm experienced in his lifetime. Hans wrote his own eulogy. Born in 1928 as a peasant farmer’s son, he remembered when wheat was harvested … Continue reading →

A Zambian, two Swiss and two Canadians wrote me to tell me what they do to keep laughter and joy in their days as farmwomen. I’d asked for their input for an article for the local Swiss farm paper. Since … Continue reading →

We were too busy packing and readying for our move from Switzerland to Canada during the second half of 1991 to take too much notice of what was happening in former Yugoslavia. I do remember the hoards of people sitting … Continue reading →

A friend of mine was a matron on the dementia ward of a senior’s home. One day she was designated a new client; the woman was disturbing the clients on the ward she was on before. She had a habit … Continue reading →

All we wanted was to ask directions to the hiking trail. Instead, Jean-Charles filled our heads with intimate stories of his family and village during the Second World War. The Alsace side of the story is rarely properly told, he … Continue reading →

Juliet works hard to make her handicapped son Mapalo more independent. “Not long ago, she says, she was trying to teach him to feed himself with a spoon. Mapalo put his hands behind his back. Juliet got angry, shouted at … Continue reading →

This story is a testimony of what a brain can still accomplish when others tell you you’re brain injured, you can’t do that anymore…. the brain is a wonderful thing. But it takes a pile of self-esteem, which is often … Continue reading →

She’d thought she was dull, Loveness told me, because she hadn’t passed her Grade nine exams. That was the end of her formal schooling. She married a farmer, and ended up living in a Zambian village. It wasn’t until her … Continue reading →

After Short Track (speed skating) training on Saturday afternoons I generally stop by to visit little Emma, our now month-old granddaughter. Her four-year-old twin brothers are still young enough to be impressed by my skating outfit, especially my club jacket. … Continue reading →