‘Take life as it comes, not as you would like it to be.’
Marcelle Bucher is born in Geneva in 1921, but when she is three years old, her family moves to the canton of Bern. Relatives on her mother’s side offer her father a job in their shop. There she learns German, which comes easily to her, unlike her father.
When she is eleven years old, her brother is born. Her mother works as a seamstress at home and Marcelle Bucher is given the task of looking after her brother from an early age. Even though she would have preferred to play with the other children at the time, this lays the foundation for a close relationship with her brother that would last a lifetime. After school, she completes an apprenticeship and then works for eight years at the renowned seed company Samen Vatter in Bern.
The Second World War is a terrible time for Marcelle Bucher. People are afraid of what was happening in Europe. When her father dies in 1942, there is no widow’s pension. This means that her mother is dependent on the meagre financial resources that Marcelle brings home. But there are also some happy moments during this difficult time. Marcelle Bucher laughs heartily as she recounts how she met her husband while dancing at a casino in Bern. Although he is not a good dancer, he wins her over. They become a couple and get married. At the age of 32, she has her first daughter, and at 34, her second. Together, they often go hiking, for example in the Tösstal valley, in Grindelwald or on the Gornergrat.
Marcelle Bucher has been there for her family her whole life and is very proud of them. When her eldest daughter decides to drop out of her apprenticeship at the age of 17 to get married and start a family, Marcelle Bucher finds it difficult to understand. She smiles as she thinks of her now grown-up granddaughter: sometimes you worry so much, and then everything turns out fine after all!
At age 81, her husband falls ill with cancer, and she takes care of him for two years. He passes away, on their wedding anniversary, after 52 years of marriage. After a fall, she moves into a nursing home at the age of 101. She settled in well there. She knits a lot, sings with the other women and occasionally has fun with her fellow residents. She has always loved reading, but her eyes no longer allow her to do so. However, she says she is not sad about this; you have to accept it, it’s just part of getting older. There’s no point in fighting life.
Living to be 100 was never a goal for Marcelle Bucher. 80 would have been a good age, that would have been enough for her. She doesn’t have a secret recipe for ageing. Laughing, she says it can’t be down to sport, because she never did much of that. Perhaps her diet helped, which always included lots of vegetables and fruit, no meat and little alcohol. Her relaxed attitude to life may also have contributed to her longevity.