MY DEAR OLD EUROPE

When I was seventeen  you first seduced me with your antiquity. After four months I took reluctant leave, vowing to return.

Seven year later you sent a dashing young Swiss man to bring me to Zurich. I had come home!

Swiss jobs could not compete with American ones. After two years husband tore me away from you in the midst of your turmoil. You sent messages and emissaries--poor substitutes for your embrace.

A one-year Fulbright grant to Cambridge, England, eight years later, satisfied my passion temporarily. I immersed myself in your deep roots.

After seven years, a Ford Foundation grant to CERN took pity, brought me back to my adopted country for one year. I hiked again in  your exquisite landscapes.

The US Office of Naval Research extended that stay to two years. I luxuriated in culture-rich London.

The University of Geneva made my stay permanent. No longer in exile, I learned French, explored your countries.

Alas--after ten years, entanglement with re-married ex-husband made me resist your charm. I escaped to USA. Would I ever find such tasty fruit as yours anywhere else?

Three years later, now-divorced ex-husband, son, two granddaughters brought me back to you. What a joy to speak French and German again!

After seven more exquisite years, ex-husband died. Two daughters and two grandchildren beckoned me to California. Could I ride such trains as yours in the New World?

On a month's return pilgrimage three years later, I wept for one week, saying, "I may never see Europe again."  I was released from my fifty-year-long infatuation.

My passion spent and free from compulsion, I enjoyed an October visit with you, again seven years later.

Finally, after eight more years, I saw you for the last time.  I am now fully content with   pictures and visits from European relatives and friends.