The Quiet Shape of a Father

Three years after his death, I finally found the words to write about my father. Not as an engineer, though he was a brilliant and respected one, but as a quiet, dignified man whose love of nature, steadiness, and way of looking at the world shaped my own life far more deeply than I understood at the time. This is a remembrance, and in its own way, a thank-you.

When we said: “We’ll get Max!”

As children, we did not need comic-book superheroes. We had our own. In our corner of the Zürcher Oberland, the ultimate name was Max Wolfensberger, a figure of almost mythical strength, borrowed from the adult world and transformed into childhood legend. Only many years later did I discover the real man behind the name, and with that discovery came not disillusionment, but a deeper tenderness for both him and the beautiful innocence of those early years.