“I must have been thirteen or fourteen”, recalls Annette. “It was in my younger days”, she adds with a smile, as a gust of wind sweeps across the terrace where we’ve settled down for a coffee.

She pretends to think for a moment before remembering that it was in July.

It was right in the heart of the Swiss mountains, during a summer camp.

A daring young girl, if Annette’s version of events is to be believed. “She asked me if I wanted to go out with her and I said yes!” No sooner said than done! It was also the teenager who took the initiative when it came to the first kiss. “She was far less shy than me. She was the one who kissed me. It wasn’t a proper, lingering kiss,” she says, amused. “It was a kiss on the lips, shy and a bit clumsy.”

A beautiful, fleeting holiday romance, the sort you only experience as a teenager. A fling with no future, but one of those you never forget. Yet it leaves Annette with a bittersweet aftertaste, for the young boy she was at the time was experiencing a deep sense of unease.

Finally asserting her identity

“Back then, I couldn’t define or put into words what was wrong, but I knew I wasn’t comfortable in my own skin or in my own body. I wasn’t happy!” She takes a sip of coffee as the wind sweeps through her long hair. “It was a very difficult time. I often tried to imagine what it would be like to be a girl. But at the same time, I told myself it was a path I could never take. It was painful. I didn’t feel I belonged; I felt different from everyone else. And I felt ashamed too!”

Annette wouldn’t tell anyone. Ever! And yet, despite this heavy secret, an encounter would soon turn her life upside down. “At 24, I met my wife. When I kissed her for the first time, I knew it was true love, the love of my life!” A love story that would last 27 years and bring fulfilment to the man Annette was at the time, until the weight of her unhappiness became too much to bear. “I attempted suicide.” A desperate act that was the catalyst for change.

“In 2020, at the age of 52, I came out as a trans woman to my ex-wife. It was the first time I’d spoken to anyone about it. It was the first time I could say what I really felt, deep down inside. I didn’t want to hide anymore. I felt listened to. She was kind, tolerant and understanding, but above all she supported and accompanied me enormously throughout my transition. She was by my side the whole time! She is an exceptional woman, even though we are separated today. Without her, I don’t know if I would have managed to finally accept myself fully,” Annette confides, deeply moved. Today, she is finally and above all a fulfilled and happy woman. “And a woman newly in love,” she adds, with a smile on her lips.