Emmy Spozio

It was there, in California, that in January 1962, at her workplace, she met a young Swiss who had come to practice his talents as a lathe machine technician.  
  
He also came with his skis to trace a few curves on the snowy slopes of the distant Californian mountains (yes, there are some, right next door, barely 1 hour away).  
  
Unfortunately, this handsome man does not yet speak English... but German.  
Fortunately, in the Netherlands, German, ultimately a language not too far from Dutch, is learned at school. It was thus her 4th language.  
  
She has no trouble understanding the word "einladen", hence the invitation offered to her by this handsome tanned man.  
Here they are, both on the same train for a very long journey.  
  
Very quickly she wanted to present her conquest during a family reunion.  
20 people were all gathered in the main room when her Romeo entered. Coming back from a day of sculling in the Californian snow, he had on his ski boots (which looked like thick leather walking shoes). Arriving and walking at pace using long strides, no doubt in a hurry to see his sweetheart, he tripped his feet in the carpet to finish his run flat on his stomach in the middle of his completely stunned future in-laws.  
  
I'll let you imagine the gliding flight and especially the landing of a suitor disguised as a skier amidst worried, then amused looks.  
 
 Following the return to Switzerland (of her future ski teacher) and certainly with the authorization of her brothers, it was in April 1963 that she joined him in Switzerland for the first time.  
Just for a week. 7 days, but only 6 nights, she specified!  
  
Having landed at Basel airport, it is via the Moutier gorges that she arrived at his village. It's here! She exclaimed with fear when she saw the Moutier sign.  
You don't pay attention to it, but every time I pass by, I think about it and will continue to smile at this story.  
Indeed, the panel is placed at the narrowest place in the Moutier gorges. Frankly, the narrowness of the place is enough to worry even the most open-minded about the prospect of taking up residence there.  
  
A few months later, during the winter of 1963-1964, she returned for two weeks. The story does not specify, this time, the number of nights.  
  
The reception takes place again at Basel airport. At the time, we waited for passengers almost at the foot of the plane. A long wait, even very long when no one comes out and the long-awaited passenger does not appear. To stand a hunter up would be the last straw.  
  
But after many endless minutes, here is Mademoiselle who shows up. After landing, she took the time to make herself beautiful (which frankly wasn't necessary according to the main witness).  
  
At the end of 1964, she made another trip to Switzerland, this time, it was going to be necessary to play strategically to not let her leave again.  
  
But during the flight, her plane caught fire and had to crash land near Newfoundland in Canada.  
When she told us this story, our questions were whether she had been scared. Her answer ‘’no, not at all’’. Her philosophy was: what's the point of worrying if nothing can be done about it!  
This philosophy applies to opposite situations. She also told us, why worry if there is a solution, we just must apply it.  
 
Her lover, very impatient to find her (we understand) had come to wait for her in Amsterdam, the last stopover before Switzerland. It was there that he heard the news of this near accident. The telegram informed him of an arrival at 3 o'clock in Amsterdam, without giving further details. Without information or a telephone number, the meeting was difficult to organise. Finally, love would bridge the gap and allow this meeting on the tarmac of Amsterdam airport, ... it is indeed 3:00 a.m. Once on the tarmac this time, he did not have to wait long to see emerge from the cabin a huge Mexican hat under which the beauty was hiding.  
   
Barely arriving in Moutier, she took part in her first Alpine club indoor training. She enters the field in the middle of a football game, catches a ball in the air with her foot and with a masterful scissors kick, scored a goal under the stunned gaze of everyone.  
Moreover, believing that "wife" was her nickname, everyone called her that for two years, even though it was the sweet little nickname normally reserved for his darling.  
Then it was the first ski lesson, at the Graitery mountain. On an almost flat section, she puts her skis down and... watches them slide away (at the time, there was no ski binding brakes).  
  
A few days later, she climbs the Raimeux in touring skis, via the Gore Virat, and had to cross, in mountaineer mode, the large snow cornice which gives access to the plateau on which the chalet is located. Finally, the day's train stops at the 1st farm and that's where she dozes off on the ‘Kunscht’ or ‘bench stove’.  
  
Then everything comes together!  
The famous strategy works wonderfully. Emmy becomes pregnant.  

The story goes that it was in the middle of a tennis game that she announced to her future husband: “I think I’m pregnant.” The latter then addresses Father Brahier, at the time a missionary in Tibet, but back for a while in Switzerland wearing his long dress, who is mowing the tall grass in the field just behind the tennis courts. The future couple ask him to lead the wedding ceremony. 

It’s July 24, 1965, right in the middle of the holidays. There was urgency. The ceremony takes place in the very beautiful and modern church of Vicques.   
  
As my grandmother said: ‘’your father wanted to marry a good skier... he ended up marrying a woman who had never seen snow’’.