We met at Ecolint (and again, after, at Ecolint): Anna & Edward (LGB, 1990)

Eventually, you leave Ecolint. But Ecolint never quite leaves you.

And sometimes, it brings you back to the person you were always meant to find.

Anna & Edward

Sometimes, life has a funny way of bringing people back to where it all began.

On September 11, members of the “You went to Ecolint if…” Facebook group were treated to a heartwarming post. With almost 400 likes and more than 110 comments, the news quickly became the talk of the Ecolint alumni community.

Naturally, I wanted to know more.

I knew that Anna and Edward had been classmates at La Grande Boissière. I also knew that, 36 years after leaving school, they had somehow found their way back to each other.

What I didn’t know was that Ecolint’s Centenary celebrations had played a rather important role in their story.

So, when Anna and Edward were next in Geneva, we met for lunch at the Courbe du Goût, formerly known to generations of alumni as “The Aube’”.

They arrive looking every bit as stylish as they do in their wedding photographs. Anna’s eyes are sparkling. Edward, with his pink hair and flowery shirt, looks a little like a modern-day pirate. Anna greets me with a delighted, “At last!”

Although Anna has been an active alumna in Geneva for many years, this is actually the first time we have met. She is the creator of the “You went to Ecolint if…” Facebook group, now bringing together almost 5,000 alumni, and she served as President of the Alumni Association for several years.

We order lunch, and I get straight to the point: “Tell me everything.”

I had done some digging through Yearbooks and student archives, but I wanted to hear the story from them.

And as Anna and Edward look at each other, it is immediately clear that this is not simply a story about two former classmates reconnecting. There is something deeper between them.

Something warm, playful and unmistakably loving.

A little “e” and a little “a”

Before we go any further, Anna and Edward proudly show me their brand-new tattoos.

Anna has a tiny “e” on her wrist. Edward (having sworn he would never get a tattoo) has an “a”.

Wedding rings, of course, would have been far too conventional. Anna explains that she had always valued her independence and never loved the traditional idea of marriage.

Edward looks at her, puts his arm around her and adds:

“Until you met the right man.”

And there it is.

The story of boy meets girl.

You should know upfront, this IS a love story.

Back to the beginning

Anna and Edward both started at La Grande Boissière in 1983 and stayed until 1985, when Anna transferred to La Châtaigneraie. Missing her friends, she eventually managed to convince her mother to let her return to LGB in 1988, in Y12.

Back in the same class as Edward, their photographs appear side by side in the 1989 Yearbook, although several classmates (all the T’s) should have alphabetically stood between them.

A tiny wink from destiny?

Edward was a talented student, excelling academically while throwing himself into school life. He acted in theatre with Mr Orange, “an incredible teacher”, played rugby at school and for the Swiss national team, and participated in numerous school activities from Middle School Drama Clubs to playground supervision in the primary school. Unsurprisingly, he graduated on the Honour Roll.

Anna had a very different experience of school. She struggled academically and, now diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, understands why classes could sometimes be so difficult for her. There were occasional clashes with teachers, although she remembers Mr Sharpe particularly fondly for taking her under his wing.

And Edward? Well, he had “a crush on her, like everyone else.”

Anna, naturally, had absolutely no idea.

And then life happened

In 1990, Edward left Geneva to study Mathematics in the UK. Anna stayed in Geneva.

Their paths diverged.

Edward married, began a career in wealth management and became the father of three girls. Anna travelled the world and worked as an executive assistant in various roles before joining the World Economic Forum in 2015.

Decades passed. In 2019, Edward decided to follow another passion and return to university to study astrophysics. He paused his career and embarked on a PhD at the University of Sussex and, in 2023, he became Dr. Ed. Anna, meanwhile, had unexpectedly lost her job at the WEF and was focusing on her mental health.

And then, something else was happening. Ecolint was turning 100.

The sliding doors moment(s)

The Centenary Alumni World Reunion brought almost 1,500 alumni back to Geneva from 39 countries. Edward was one of them. He signed up for the Opening Ceremony (actually, he gatecrashed it), his class dinner and the Tea with Former Teachers. Anna, who historically didn't love returning to campus, hadn't registered for anything official and was following the excitement from a distance. But on the Friday night, she took a chance. Deciding she couldn't pass up the opportunity to see old friends, she walked her two dogs down to the Brasserie du Molard, where the Class of 1989/90 dinner was taking place. 

And there, outside, was Edward. His back was turned, talking to an old friend. Anna walked up behind him, put her hands over his eyes and asked:

“Guess who?”

Edward, despite having spent years studying astrophysics, had apparently lost all ability to calculate the probability of identifying someone he hadn't seen or heard from in 34 years.

He had no idea. But when he turned around, he recognised her immediately exclaiming, “It’s Anna it’s Anna it’s Anna!”. They started talking. Edward asked Anna if she remembered his “heroic” moment in an Economics class.

She didn't. Not even slightly. So he reminded her.

One day, Mr Philips wanted to expel Anna from the class for no good reason. Edward, the model student, felt that if Anna was being thrown out, he should be too.

“If you throw her out, you throw us both out.”

And he walked out with her.

Thirty-four years later, Edward discovered that Anna had absolutely zero memory of his grand chivalrous gesture. They laughed about it and then each went off to catch up with different people and that was that. 

One more night

At the end of the dinner, the majority of the 89/90 classmates decided to continue the evening at a club. Anna couldn't join them. She had two dogs with her.

So, instead, sitting on a bench in Molard, she called out:

“Anyone want to see my new garden?”

As luck would have it, Edward happened to walk into earshot at just the right moment, and with some others, took up the offer. After a few more rounds in Cotton with a handful of alumni, Anna, Edward, the two dogs and another classmate, Erik, ended up in a taxi heading to Vésenaz. Erik realised he had only three hours before he needed to take his children to football and wisely bowed out. That left just Anna and Edward. And the dogs. And they stayed up till dawn talking about everything and anything. In the new garden!

“We are not together.”

The following day was the only Centenary event Anna had actually signed up for: the Tea with Former Teachers.

She had hoped to see Mr Sharpe. When she heard he wasn't there, she stayed at the Courbe du Goût instead. Edward, meanwhile, was on campus.

Then Anna received a selfie from him. With Mr Sharpe.

So she went back to campus. And that's when something rather strange happened.

One by one, their former teachers greeted them as though they were already a couple. As though it were the most natural thing in the world, even though it was less than 24 hours since they had re-met.

The first time, they corrected them.

The second time, they corrected them again.

By the third time, Edward had apparently decided there was no point fighting destiny.

His answer changed from:

“We are not together.”

to:

“We are not YET together.”

The message that changed everything

But the weekend eventually came to an end. Edward returned to the UK.

At the airport, he wrote a post in the “You Went to Ecolint If…” Facebook group:

“Words won't ever be able to describe the wonderment of the past few days. An effective time bubble that really felt like it was only yesterday when our shared Ecolint odyssey began. In now leaving, I sit here at the airport with a strange and profound sense of emptiness but never has my heart felt so full. Thank you everyone who made this everything I had hoped it would be. You are very special people. Bisous et à la prochaine!”

This time, Anna noticed.

The return to Geneva

They stayed in touch. They exchanged songs on Spotify.

And, later in the summer, Edward returned to Geneva, and he contacted Anna. And, as they say, the rest is history.

And today, sitting across from me on the terrace of the Courbe du Goût, they are happily married. Anna's life has been turned upside down, in the best possible way.

The independent Genevoise is now a step-mum to three British teenagers. She adores them, while still valuing her independence. And Edward, she says, understands that.

Then Anna says something that, for me, captures the whole story:

“After years of having to explain who I am, where I come from, this is so refreshing to be with someone who just knows. This is our shared Ecolint story.”

And suddenly, the story becomes about much more than romance. It is about the strange and beautiful threads that connect our lives.

About people we once knew, lost touch with and sometimes barely noticed, only to meet them again decades later as completely different people. It is about friendships, memories, teachers, classrooms, Yearbooks and the places that stay with us long after we leave them.

And perhaps, sometimes, it is about timing.

About taking the chance to go to the dinner you almost skipped. To walk out of the right door at the right time.

About turning up.

As I sit with them, their happiness is tangible. It fills the terrace. They look at each other with the kind of ease that comes from knowing someone not only as they are today, but as they once were.

Two teenagers in the same classroom.

Two adults who went their separate ways.

And, somehow, two people who found each other again.

At Ecolint. Thirty-four years later.

I feel lucky to have heard their story. And, perhaps, a tiny bit proud of the small role I played in organising the Centenary Alumni World Reunion, including some of the events Anna didn't attend. So, on behalf of everyone at Ecolint, I wish Anna and Edward a lifetime of happiness.

Not simply because they are Ecolint alumni. But because they are, quite simply, two wonderful human beings.