A letter looking for someone · Someone I met travelling
Anneke · Sarria, May 2017
Sent Nov 12, 2026
- Where & when
- Camino de Santiago, albergue in Sarria · Sarria · Spain 2017 the albergue floor in Sarria
- About them then
-
Anneke · about 37 then
A tall Dutch nurse in her late thirties with cropped silver-blonde hair and a bright orange rain cape. She spoke four languages badly and laughed in all of them. She carried a tiny first-aid kit that seemed to hold more than my whole suitcase.
- Who I was then
- The grey-haired Irish woman in borrowed flip-flops, the one who cried quietly into her soup.
- Why I'm writing
- To say thank you · Just hoping my words reach them
I was sixty-two, recently widowed, and walking the Camino because my husband had always promised we would. By the second afternoon both of my heels had given up. In the albergue at Sarria you knelt on the stone floor, cleaned my feet, and talked about nothing at all so I would not notice the sting. In the morning you wrapped them again and pressed a roll of tape into my hand. I walked into Santiago nine days later on those feet.
Passed on by 0 · reached step 0 · 0 keeping an eye out