One Ad Three Lives

The help wanted ad in the International Herald-Tribune in June 1990 wanted sales people who

• Spoke German
• Spoke French
• Knew Digital Equipment Corporation

The last line read "We will get working papers." The job was in Switzerland.

In Leiden, Netherlands, a man in his 20s had just bought a copier. He chose the Help Wanted section to copy. He wanted a job in Switzerland. He spoke German, English, Dutch and limited French. He knew that Digital produced computers. He didn't need working papers. He was Swiss.

He applied.

In the States, a young German woman, a recent university graduate, saw the ad. A U.S. Air Force brat, she spoke, read and wrote English, French, German fluently. Digital knowledge--not so much.

She applied.

In Boston, a 47-year old woman who desperately wanted to live and work in Europe saw the ad from the IHT she had bought in Cambridge at the Out of Town Newsstand. She had worked with Digital for eight years. Her German was very rusty, her French minimal. She had been mass mailing CVs to France. Thinking it was impossible to get working papers, she'd never tried Switzerland.

She applied.

All three were hired and started working together in Peseux, Switzerland in September 1990. They shared the company apartment peacefully despite differences in ages and interests until each moved on to other living spaces.

Fast forward to 2019.

The young man quickly moved from the job he was hired for to being a very successful computer contractor. Some weekends, he went to the South of France with the older woman, where he met and married his wife. They have a son at university. He "officiated" at the older woman's wedding in 2013 as she did at his. She describes him as the brother she always wanted.

The college graduate continued in the same line of work, ending up as a partner in another company. She has married, has a beautiful and frighteningly intelligent daughter and lives in a beautiful home in the German section of Switzerland. From time to time they manage to get together for a meal, weekend or a bit more.

The older woman changed jobs and published 11 novels, one of which uses the graduate's home in a description and the village in the title. In 2006  she became Swiss. She remarried in her 70s to her soul mate.

These three are in contact in varying degrees. The older woman (me) spent the weekend with the college graduate and is hoping to see the not-so-young man within the next couple of weekends.

That one ad drastically changed three lives, created friendships, something the man who placed the ad had no idea would happen. He wanted three sales people. The three people had totally different lives than they would have if they'd never picked up the International Herald Tribune.

Life happens.