Ruth Nuesch

In Spring 2017, I finally had emptied all the boxes which I had filled in Switzerland a few months before. I started to feel comfortable in Ottawa, Canada, made new friends, and hoped the cold winter days would soon be gone.

By mid-April I received a letter from Japan. Hiko wrote that he wanted to come to Ottawa at the beginning of May--to make sure I was fine with the new life in Canada. About 50 years ago, Hiko had been my first love. We had kept in touch on and off. 

I wanted friends to come, but in summer. I asked Hiko to delay the visit, but he had already bought the ticket. At the beginning of May, on a Friday evening, I went to the airport. Hiko (81!) had arrived from Tokyo.

What could I show to a visitor on a rainy cold weekend, in a city with many pretty corners in summer? At dinner I mentioned that the  “Tulip Festival” with hundreds of thousands of tulips would start the next day. His answer was short: “ Tulips don’t smell”. End of story! Hiko loved roses. I should have known better. 

Hiko left on Monday morning for the long flight back, after he had made sure that I hadn’t become Canadian and was still the Swiss girl he had known and loved for so long.  

My granddaughters advised me to, “Ask Google” about the flowers, Some tulips ARE fragrant, but for me all tulips smell. They smell of spring and will always remind me of a dear friend who had come such a long way for a weekend, just to see me.