Despite his illness, he and his wife and sons were still able to enjoy each other's company, love and support until the last few days.
Allan was a keen walker, and had completed many long-distance walks. He would have enjoyed this one, I'm sure, so his illness and death lend a particular bittersweet resonance to these few days on the Via. Just as dementia brings changed lives to all affected, so every day on the Via brings change to how we experience the journey, and our reasons for keeping on putting one foot in front of the other.
Un passo alla volta as they say.
Absolutely perfect!
ReplyDeleteBeautifully put B.
ReplyDeleteVery sweetly expressed, Beth. We've got to keep soldiering on.
ReplyDeleteA lovely refelction on encountering death in the liminality of pilgrimage. On the day of my first arrival in Santiago de Compostela (at the end of the Portuguese Camino) a friend of over 40 years died in Canada. She had been ill for a long time and it had felt as though she and I were walking together, her on her last pilgrimage and me putting in the miles on a terrestrial level.
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