Last Things

The last night before arriving in Santiago de Compostela in the morning. Yesterday evening I spent time strolling around the Lavacolla parish church cemetery. It was a hive of activity with people busy cleaning and polishing the family graves. Each column of headstones belongs to a family. You might just see some of the names on the stone tops of the columns. The glass fronted heatstones open up to allow cleaning and the placement of statues and other memorial items. Off course families were preparing for All Saints Day on Saturday. This morning there was an item on the news about florists also preparing for Saturday. One of the bunches of Chrysanthemums cost 40E. It all got me thinking! Yes I do think every now and then. How about instead of spending lots of $$$ on lollies and halloween costumes, lets spend a day celebrating and honouring all our family members and friends who have died. Not so long ago my great nephew told me he had never before seen photos of his great grandparents. Let's "introduce" our children and grandchildren to those who have died. Okay, rave over. On a similar vein, today I met 7 year old Jayden and his mum Ling. From China originally, Ling now lives in Ireland where Jayden was born. A little Chinese boy with a Irish accent. He was excited because his grandmother who is 70 is coming over from China to stay with them for six months. At one stage I thought I was going to lose Constantine, as Jayden wanted to see the mouse in my backpack. Constantine has been on 3 camino, I hope he has one more in him, so I resisted the temptation to part with him. You will also see a photo of Jenny from North London. We sat and chatted, compared notes for a while. I had spoken to her yesterday and offered to share a banana, as we both sweated our way up one of the many hills. At the last church before Santiago there was time to listen to a man playing a double bass, that beautuful deep rich sound echoing out over the trail was very moving indeed. From there I could see the city of Milladioro, the last stop for Jay and I in 2023. One of the differences between this and the Portuguese Camino is the lack of wayside shrines. But I did leave a stone for G on the last one today. Tomorrow I walk into Santiago, G's Camino will end but the hurt and anguish for many families continues. In thinking about our family members who have died we all need to remember that they are our saints, they are part of our identity no matter how, when or why they died. We will always have a relationship with them, sure it is a different relationship, but it will always be one of love. We can help provide support for those going through the pain of mental illness by continuing to share the links to #georgiascamino. #iamhope #holyblisters

See you in Santiago tomorrow. Photos in a separate post.