Finding Her Voice

We were delighted yesterday afternoon to see the Spanish pilgrim named Carmen show up at our albergue. She rushed over to hug us and joined us as we relaxed outside in the shade. She is doing the Camino differently; she drives to a place and then walks certain parts. She is the woman with a beautiful voice who joined the local Basque lady singing in the park a few days ago.

We had a nice pilgrim dinner with her and 2 young gals from Germany. She is originally from Valencia but has lived in London with her husband for the past 30 years. Earlier she had told us that she had not sung in 30 years, the whole time she had been in England.  We figured that there must be a story behiond that.

This morning we ended up sleeping in until 7:15 because the Australian men who were in our room didn't end up hearing their alarm and so we all overslept. When we got downstairs Carmen was having her breakfast.  We ordered  coffee and sat with her. She told us that she only had 2 more nights in Spain and she was done doing the Camino for now. I decided to ask her about   whether she would start singing again back home. She burst into tears and I found that I had tears streaming down my cheeks as well. She grasped my hands as she struggled to speak. She said that she had loved dancing and singing, but when she moved to London there   was no place for it in her life there. She was so busy being a wife and mother and working that she had stopped doing the dancing and singing that she loved so much. She said that she felt like her young self back here in Spain. We encourage her to find a way to bring the singing back in her life, even if it was just while she was cooking and doing dishes. I told her how much joy I saw in her face while she was singing in the park.

We hugged and cried some more.  This is what the Camino is all about. I felt blessed to share this moment with her. The delightful woman who ran the Albergue asked what was going on. She came   over and hugged us as well. Her mother who also helped run the albergue wanted to hug all of us too. Needless to say, we got a late start on the Camino today, but it felt exactly right.