I met one amazing lady on this trip. Several days ago, we were leaving Pamplona early in the morning and a lady asked us in her very broken English, "Do... you... know... the way... out of the city?" We said we thought so and she was more than welcome to stay with us as long as she liked. Karstr (sounds like car-star) is from Germany and began to tell me what brought her on the Camino. She said her mother and husband had passed away several years ago and she had no children. She had taken this as a wonderful chance to travel since she had no one to worry about her and did not have to call home. She was free as a bird. She had sung in a choir at her church for several years and loved it.
Now she decided to travel further and walk the Camino. She started walking in Germany a few months ago and then came to France. She said, "The weather was just too bad, so I took a bus." Then she started in St. Jean in France (which Trey and I started the day after this cause it was way too hard without training). And this lady decided to SLOW DOWN to walk with us. My feet were hurting so bad then that we stopped for about two hours to rest and Karstr stayed with us. Then she doctored my feet and waited on us and then began again with us.
I asked her how she was able to do this alone. She said, "God gives me strength for today! If I do not have Him, I have nothing. That is what keeps me going." She continued on ahead of us and we have seen her a few times since. She is doing so well and we hope to see her again soon. She plans to walk all the way to Santiago.
Karstr will turn 72 in September.
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