3 years ago…TODAY…the 19th of October, I had spent 19 days on the Camino.
The days had passed, walking through beautiful scenery, cute villages, busy cities,sometimes long stretches of asphalt, some days alone on a muddy path, In the sun and sometimes in the rain, more or less sore feet, meetings and sharings with so many beautiful people.

That morning I woke up in Hospital de Orbigo. The evening before I had entered this medieval village in pouring rain. I went to book a bed in the communal auberge but soon felt I couldn’t stay there. It was humid with flies and cats all over the place and there I just felt cold and in discomfort. A fellow pilgrim came to my rescue and told me she just had had enough of this place and had found a nice warm auberge with a fire stove, just across the street. I followed her there.

I slept well and woke up at 7 am and went to the common wash basins in the upper hall of the auberge. I heard the rain still pouring and looked with newly awaken eyes in the mirror. I got aware that someone was looking at me and through the mirror I looked into a pair of blue eyes that seemed a bit amused. A guy was sitting on the stairs and on his way out he smiled at me and said; “I love your curls”!

We chatted a bit and then I went for breakfast and him I expected to be gone in a few moments. Turning my head towards the hallway while finishing my coffee, I was surprised to see that he was still there. Curiosity made me hurry up and go over to him to continue our chat and after a while we again said good bye. This time we both stood up and embraced in a hug. Here I don’t know what happened…but none of us could let go of the hug! Don’t know how long we stood there, but eventually we let go and looked at each other, in a mix of recognition and surprise, and decided to walk together…through rain and mud that day…
It would be a too long blog post if I’d share all the details that followed…I’ll save them for my memoars 😉 But an interesting detail is that he also arrived the evening before, checked himself in at the same damp place as I did…also felt uncomfortable and went to look for somewhere else to stay…and choosed the same place as I…

We walked the rest of the camino together and finished in Santiago on the 27th of October. We saw each other off and I went home to Sweden and he flew back to Canada.

3 weeks later he had an assignment in Germany and I nervously went there to see him. Would it feel the same to meet outside the camino? How would we act when we were out there in the “real world”, with nice clothes and make up on…? Well, the third night he surprised himself by asking me to marry him, and I surprised myself without hesitation answering yes, yes, YES…!

7 month later we got married in Sweden and I moved to him in Montreal.

So much has happened since that morning in Hospital de Orbigo…since then I no longer walk alone. I’m learning so much in our relationship and there’s not a single day without us gratefully talking about how fortunate we are, and for that tiny window of time that opened up for us to meet…
I wanted to share this today, on our three year anniversary, because I celebrate! I celebrate love, connection, honesty, vulnerability, everyday learnings and growth…

Thank you life and thank you Michel ❤️