Typical People to People: We meet one another any time and any place. About twenty years ago, at a PTPI conference in America, we met Marsha Wallace, an active, engaged and engaging PTPI member from Los Angeles, with a heartwarming and unforgetable laugh, and exceptional generosity.
We were reminded of 1996, when a Russian group was visiting our chapter. We then discovered the remarkable singing talent of our guest Ekaterina “Katie” Gaidanskaia. We decided to help her with the realisation of a music education.
Marsha contributed countless times over the years, along with other generous donations from our own Interlaken, Switzerland Chapter members, to foster the music education of this talented young woman. Five years later Katia was able to graduate from an Opera program at the Opera House in Genova, Italy. She was also invited to do a post graduate year at La Scala in Milan, further testimony to her gift, her hard work, and the support of generous friends like Marsha. Katia is now married to Massimo Pastorelli and appears in major Opera Houses all over Europe.
Marsha was once again in Switzerland this spring, to visit Rita Fischer before going on to the PTPI European Conference in Pecs, Hungary. Marsha and Rita met while Rita was studying in America, and from time to time, they are able to get together. We agreed to get together with Rita and Marsha in the Restaurant Kaiser Franz in Zug.
Rita, Marsha, Regina and Ernest in Zug
We had already met Rita Fischer several years before, when she came to visit Marsha, who was then on a Homestay with us in Interlaken. Rita promptly and spontaneously joined the Interlaken Chapter.
This time, as usual, we weren’t short of discussion topics: the goings on in PTPI these days, exchange of memories, forthcoming causes and activities of the organization worldwide, and naturally also new chapters in our family stories.
If destiny doesn’t get in the way, we will meet one another again, sometime, somewhere.
Cultivating PTPI acquaintances into real lasting friendships is worth the effort. Stay in touch by e-mail, snail mail, or, even better, meeting face to face in a beautiful place.
Regina and ERnest Walti
PTPI’s Interlaken/Berner Oberland, Switzerland Chapter
Translation by Chapter Board member, Dr. Ronnie Blakeney
