Switzerland as a possible destination for assisted death becomes the geographical center of a painful conflict between Elfrieda Von Riesen’s request and her sister Yolandi Von Riesen’s uncertainty about whether she can help. It is never a place the sisters reach. Instead, it exists in the novel as a researched legal possibility and an imagined journey whose practical and moral demands Yolandi cannot resolve.

A Requested Destination

During Elfrieda’s psychiatric hospitalization, she asks Yolandi to take her to Switzerland. Yolandi refuses, objecting not only to the request but to Elfrieda’s description of it as one last thing. The refusal does not end the question: Yolandi later returns to the possibility in private, trying to determine whether there is a lawful way to honor her sister’s wish.

Yolandi searches online for assisted death and learns that Swiss law, as she understands it, permits assistance when there is no selfish motive and does not restrict protection to Swiss citizens. She also finds that the practice has not been used often. Her research makes the destination seem legally possible, but not assured: she recognizes that a clinic’s decision could depend on whether Elfrieda’s suffering is judged sufficient.

Research, Cost, and Doubt

The possibility becomes increasingly concrete as Yolandi looks into a clinic in Zurich and asks a friend, Julie, what she thinks. Julie worries that the option is intended for people who are already dying. Yolandi counters that she believes Swiss law also covers people with mental illness and refers to weariness of life. Their exchange exposes the gap between Yolandi’s reading of the law and her uncertainty about how a clinic would assess Elfrieda’s case.

Yolandi also considers the financial and logistical burden. She seeks a loan of twenty thousand dollars, estimating that it would cover travel, treatment, a hotel, and the costs of cremation and an urn. She has no collateral and no book contract to show the bank, so the loan is not approved. The research remains private from people in Toronto, while Elfrieda’s money is in a joint account with Nic, who would notice a large withdrawal.

An Imagined Contrast

In Yolandi’s thoughts, Switzerland stands apart from Mexico, another destination she considers. Mexico seems cheaper and, in her imagination, more earthy and chaotic; Switzerland suggests precision, neutrality, and the marking of time. This contrast belongs to Yolandi’s imagining rather than to any journey. It shows her trying to turn an unbearable choice into a comparison of places, costs, and possible outcomes.

The geographic distance also gives shape to Yolandi’s isolation. She repeatedly researches the Swiss option without discussing it with her family in Toronto. Even when she and Nic speak at length about music for Elfrieda’s headstone, Yolandi withholds the request because she fears it might suggest that Elfrieda does not trust him or that he has failed to understand her. She feels she must work out for herself what role she would play in the decision.

The Unmade Journey

Switzerland never becomes a shared plan accepted by Elfrieda, Nic, and Yolandi. After Elfrieda’s death, Yolandi looks back on the request and acknowledges that Elfrieda knew she did not have the courage to take her there; she also knew she was not going to move to Toronto. The confession confirms the distance between researching a possible route and being able to carry it out.

As a location, Switzerland is therefore defined less by travel or description than by the choices Yolandi attaches to it. It offers a possible legal route, but research does not settle questions of eligibility, family responsibility, or personal resolve. Its importance lies in the future Yolandi considers and cannot make real, and in the knowledge that Elfrieda understood the limits of her sister’s promise.