Dutchman is looking for his lost love in Switzerland after 50 years

It’s a story you’ll regret reading it. The good story is told in the local newspaper “Toggenburger Tagblatt”. In the middle the Dutchman Ger Zevenbergen and an unknown woman. We rewind 50 years and travel down to Wildhaus in Toggenburg. Zevenbergen, in his mid-thirties, has just completed a week of ski school and his ski class meets on the last afternoon for a last aperitif. The unknown is also present, for the first time Zevenbergen sees the face that would change his life.

The two start talking, even though only a few words are exchanged due to the language barrier – Zevenbergen does not speak German. Yet closeness is created by tender glances and touches. The Dutchman promises the unknown woman to dance with her at the evening ball. Names, addresses and telephone numbers are not exchanged, but for Zevenbergen it is love at first sight.

Unfortunately, the 88-year-old Dutchman got married and traveled to Wildhaus with his wife. Although she took the cross-country course, she insisted on accompanying her husband to the prom in the evenings. The Dutchman now realizes that things are not quite right: “I should have confessed to the beautiful lady that I am married, but I couldn’t.” Arriving there with his wife, Zevenbergen does not have the courage to contact the stranger. He told Toggenburger Tagblatt: “When we got to the ball, I ignored the beautiful young lady. Finally she had had enough.”

She leaves the ball and to this day – 50 years later – it is the last time Zevenbergen sees the woman. Heartbroken, he and his wife left on their way home.

After returning home, everyday life dominates, the nursery he owns has to be run. Time flies, the couple has no children. When he hears a song from a year ago on the radio, all his feelings come back. The text: «Why, why did you leave me? What have I done to you?”

Zevenbergen’s wife had died five years earlier, he never told her anything about the meeting with the stranger, the heartbreak that arose then remains his secret.

However, he would like to find the beautiful woman that he can’t get out of his head from now on. He can’t get rid of the guilty conscience that he just left her there. Zevenbergen searches, contacts television programs and places an advertisement in the “Toggenburger Tagblatt”, it is his last chance. He doesn’t have much information about the stranger, the language barrier at the time makes today’s search all the more difficult. Even when the 88-year-old is aware that his odds aren’t very good, he can’t let go. He wants to apologize to the unknown woman. (first)