Syracuse, NY; St. Gallen, CH; Albany, NY; Liverpool, NY; St Paul, MN; Los Angeles, CA; Otten, CH; Charlotte, NC; Sussex, NJ; Andersonville, GA; Overland Park, KS; Greenwich, CT; Elliot City MD.
The list above contains just a few addresses picked out from the Swiss Center’s guest book from the past two months. Many of our visitors are Swiss or have Swiss roots. The car today, filled with young and old, came from Nebraska.
I see in their eyes–a longing. I believe they come here to reconnect with something left behind when they or their elders emigrated from Switzerland.
The Swiss-German word for that is Heimat. It’s a beautiful word meaning the emotional commitment of a person to a community, region, or country. Heimat is also what he or she considers home.
I’ve never wandered too far from home. 3 hours north, 2 hours to the west…and now a 30 minute drive from my home in Madison.
It’s hard for me to imagine leaving home as my great-grandmother Barbara (Andrea) Zurbuchen did at the age of 20. Her parents had died, and she missed her brother who had moved to America. So in March of 1893, Barbara left Andeer, in the Canton of Graubunden, sailing alone “for a strange land, far away, where the Indians still roamed.” (her words).
Barbara Zurbuchen webMore from Great-Grandmother “When I got to New York I only had 25 francs in my pocketbook. It took me about 3 days to go by train from New York to New Glarus by way of Milwaukee. April 1st arrived in New Glarus where Bert met me with a horse and new buggy. It took us a couple hours to drive to his cheese factory (Peter’s Montrose) because the mud was so deep. As we neared the factor, I saw man standing near by and I asked ‘Is that an Indian?’”
She and Christian Zurbuchen were married nine months later. They had 16 children.
I have vague memories of Barbara Zurbuchen as she died when I was only 3. But I do remember.
My longing is for a day–okay an hour–to talk with her.
Actually, I’d want her to talk. I promise to listen.
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