This story started four generations ago in the late nineteenth century, when the Egyptian trader Ali El Talwil used to travel between Egypt and the Levant buying and selling goods back and forth between the old cities and towns of the most ancient part of the world.

 

Ali El Tawil and his Turkish wife were living in the beautiful calm town of El Menia in Upper Egypt.

 

They had three daughters and one son Moustafa.

 

1st Generation

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Moustafa El Tawil (1898-1962) went to Turkey to study medicine; he later chose to go to Germany then finally decided to settle in Switzerland where he studied medicine at the Polytechnic Institute of Zurich. Moustafa graduated sometime during WW I and later went to Vienna and Berlin for further studies; it is during that period of time that he met his wife Lydia Meyer (1899-1960) a mannequin from Zurich, they married in Zurich 1924 and came back together to Egypt where they also settled in El Menya. Dr. Moustafa El Tawil specialized in radiology.

 

Lydia had a serious illness; she went to Zurich for treatment accompanied by her husband where they spent four months. Unfortunately it was in vain, she returned back to Egypt where she passed her last days with her family and is now buried in the El Tawil family cemetery in El Menya.

 

They had three sons, Salah, Samir and Adel.

 

2nd Generation

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Samir Moustafa El Tawil (1930-2004) followed his father's steps ; after finishing school he left to Zurich 1946; being too young to be accepted in the Polytechnic he spend a whole year before being admitted for study.

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During his studies he met his future wife Hedwich Pfenninger (1932) also a beautiful mannequin from Zurich, they married in Zurich 1953 and came back together to Egypt 1956 where they also settled in el Menya. Dr. Samir specialized in internist and tropical medicine.

 

After her husband passed away, Hedwich returned back to Zurich where she is living today.

 

They had one son Ali (born in Zurich 1954) and one daughter Alia.

 

3rd Generation

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It is no wonder that Alia Samir El Tawil (1960) also followed her father and grandfather steps, she studied medicine in Alexandria university followed by two master degrees, one from Alexandria university and another from Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel.

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She held various posts ending with the World Health Organization in Cairo where – guess what - she met her future husband the Swiss Lukas Beglinger (1956) from Bern.

 

They married 1987 and moved to Bern; they had one daughter Nadine.

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