Accompanying Me Home
Accompanying Me Home
by Joseph A. Curro, Jr. | Arlington, MA
The message popped up in my inbox in January. The subject line was, “Question about Camino.”
The note, from an old friend and former colleague, read in part, “Since [my wife]’s passing I have been trying to figure out what to do with myself and I was thinking about walking the Camino… I was wondering if there were any resources you could recommend…”
I was flabbergasted. I knew my friend’s spouse had suffered from a long illness, but I did not know she had succumbed to it. My response included the following, “I have a proposition for you. Two months from today, I am walking the Via de la Plata for 10 days from Sevilla to Merida… If your workplace will allow it, and you can swing it, why don’t you join me?”
To my great delight, my friend leapt at the offer, quickly arranging things with his employer and expediting his passport renewal.
The day after Easter, we were on our way, navigating through trails that were partially flooded by this year’s Semana Santa rains.
As we walked, we gradually met others carrying similarly heavy burdens. They became our Camino family.
There was a young Dutch pilgrim who lost his wife on Christmas Day. Another Dutch pilgrim, a crime scene investigator who deals daily with death, was walking to “reset to zero.” A Swedish pilgrim was retracing the steps of a friend who had died in an albergue in Torremejia last year, just three days before they were to walk the Via de la Plata together.
In the middle of a busy plaza in Mérida, we had several powerful minutes of silence in memory of our fellow pilgrims’ losses. When we were done, a German woman with us broke down, telling us that she was walking because her sister had recently died. Ten days on the trail, and none of us had any clue!
Five weeks after returning home, it was my turn, when my Dad passed.
Just hours before I was to deliver my father’s eulogy, I received a WhatsApp message from one of my Camino family members, who—miraculously—was still walking, two months after we had begun! He sent a picture of a votive candle at Finisterre, lit in my Dad’s memory.
My pilgrim friend was determined to find real wax candles. His extraordinary timing lightened my load immeasurably on this darkest of days.
Camino magic had accompanied me home.
Editor’s note: Joe has also reviewed a Camino memoir set on the Via de la Plata. Check out “Book Review: Happiness is That Way.”
