My heart pounded as I waited in the sea of people waiting for their loved ones to, one at a time, come past airport customs, after baggage claim. Shar hadn’t checked a bag, only her backpack as carry-on, so she’d surely be one of the first through to join us. As you can imagine, she was not. So many things today had gone contrary to plan that I almost expected her flight to arrive without her. As each passenger greeted and hugged someone waiting for them, I grew a bit more anxious. I hadn’t actually been able to contact her since she told me that, like how my trip had begun three weeks earlier, her flight from Orlando to Miami had been so delayed that she had been put on a different flight.
Did that flight arrive on time? Did she make her next flight from Miami to Madrid? If so, there would be a five hour layover – had she been able to sleep on the flight? or did she unroll her sleeping bad and crash for a while during the layover… Did she sleep through the boarding, and miss this flight? Did she set an alarm on her phone? Did her phone battery die, so the alarm didn’t wake her? So many things that we just take for granted could always go wrong.
A dozen or more people had filed past, and many now seemed to have much larger bags with them that didn’t look like they could be allowed as carry-ons. I had resigned to the liklihood that she’d missed her flight. How would we contact? Especially if her phone was dead…
Sharon bounced through the doorway, and beamed with joy as our eyes met. I felt like I hadn’t seen her in months, or that we were still dating; I was so happy to see her!
She hadn’t been delayed at all. She actually was one of the first ones off the plane. I looked at the time; I had only been waiting six minutes. It really felt like a long time.
As we rode the 3 hour bus ride back to Sarria, as you can imagine, I thought about lots of things. Many things would be different after this Camino, some would not. How would my thoughts, attitudes, and my life change after this? Will it be just remembered as a “big adventure?” Or will it be that mid-life, post-tragedy reset that everyone was hoping for…
How will I respond?
Not Alone on my Camino 
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