It became our true home, even if we lived most of the time in Ljubljana. Visitors came both from home and from abroad over the years. We even had small medical meetings there, and scientific workshops with prominent scientists from many countries. These meetings were combined with leisure and long walks in the surrounding countryside. The sense of peace and contentment that pervaded the Soca Valley immensely improved our lives and was, in addition, a continual source of energy for coping with hard work and the problems of existence in the post-war period in Slovenia.
Water is deep in our genetic memory, and it has a healing power.
We are all instinctively attracted to it, so that when we go on holiday we want a room that looks out on the sea, a lake, or a river. On the Soca, our children, especially, were always eager to go down to the riverbank. They found stones of many shapes and colors there, and piles of firewood brought down by the frequent floods. I came to think of our exceptional river as a reflection of the many phases of human life. She starts in the depths of snow-covered high mountains and seems to be projected by some hidden force down the steep riverbed through narrow passages, deep canyons, over precipices.