Marie Brunner



Luca's wife, making her Elka's sister-in-law, and a part of Pauli's extended family. Her first language is Swiss-French, although she is also fluent in Italian and Swiss-German, and speaks a small amount of many others. She moved from Switzerland to Austria with Luca, and is the mother of his six children - Christophe, Louis, Eric, Hans, Maria and Estelle. She teaches languages at a secondary school in Saltzburg.

She met Luca whilst he was on an internship at a local firm, and she was studying a linguistics degree. Their initial relationship was built on getting drunk, having a good time and still knowing whose bed they were waking up in the next morning. It was only after he left that she realised an emotional attachment had been formed, but didn't know how to find him. Instead, she threw herself into her studies, worried all her friends and, eventually, Luca turned back up.

The two agreed to attempt a long distance relationship, a novelty for them both. Her parents didn't believe should could actually stay faithful without her boyfriend present; she proved them wrong.

Eventually, they both graduated. She was very pleased when Luca announced he was moving to her city, although a year later regretted this when she found herself both pregnant and unemployed.

The engagement happened a week after she broke the news to Luca, and she never did get the wedding she'd always dreamed of. Still, she learnt a hard lesson that she would always remember. Even if it was a little too late to worry about that. The child was named Christophe after her father, in an attempt to bring some dignity back. Although she lied about the circumstances to them, she knew her parents could tell.

In time, she retrained as a teacher. When Luca found employment back in Saltzburg, she followed him with their now three children, the youngest a month old, and gained herself employment there.

The twins, Hans and Maria, were born about two years later, and Estelle about 6 years after that.