86-year-old reopens village pub after son’s death
Friday 18th September 2026 on 16:15 in
Switzerland
An 86-year-old innkeeper has reopened the Sonne village pub in Wisen, Solothurn, after the sudden death of her son. SRF reported that Cecile Bitterlin returned behind the bar and stove to cope with her grief and keep the village’s most important meeting place open.
Bitterlin had helped her son Daniel every day for the past 10 years while he leased the restaurant. In early June, he suffered a fatal heart attack during a break. The loss left his mother devastated.
“I simply need to be around people. I cannot stay at home alone,” Bitterlin said. She decided just a few weeks after her son’s death to reopen the Sonne. The restaurant has been open again since the beginning of August.
Rita Nussbaumer, who owns the property, said Bitterlin had come to her and told her: “I absolutely want to open again.” Nussbaumer said she had simply hugged her.
The reopening has been welcomed in Wisen, a village near the Hauenstein Pass. Regulars still meet at the restaurant’s table every day, even as traditional inns and regulars’ tables have disappeared in many places. One guest described the Sonne as “a little paradise” with good food and good company.
Bitterlin has spent almost her entire working life in the hospitality industry, including around 30 years as an independent innkeeper. She also previously ran the Ochsen restaurant in Oltingen, Basel-Landschaft.
The work is demanding. On one evening, a birthday party ordered schnitzel with chips while the restaurant’s retired relief chef was away. Bitterlin cooked the meal herself and also makes the restaurant’s bread, plaited loaves and widely known cream slices.
Corina Schläpfer, who works in the restaurant’s service, said Bitterlin was the first to arrive in the morning and the last to leave at night. “That is exactly how I want to grow old,” Schläpfer said.
Bitterlin sees her return as a temporary solution. She plans to run the Sonne only until Nussbaumer finds a permanent successor. The search is under way but is proving difficult, as is often the case with rural inns. Bitterlin is in no hurry to stop. When asked what she would do once a successor was found, she replied: “Then I will travel. I enjoy that too.”