A chance meeting

"You should do that play on the Camino", Michael said.

"Camino? What's the Camino?", was my reply.

That is how I came to walk the Camino de Santiago and perform the one-person play "Underneath the Lintel" in the summer of 2017. I walked all 500 miles in 35 days and performed the play 26 times. It was set as a physical challenge but it soon became a spiritual and emotional journey.

In preparation people who had done the Camino before kept telling me it would not be possible to do. That I would be too exhausted, the same people would be walking with me, there would not be anywhere to perform. The more people said no, the more stubborn and determined I became to do this. I wanted to see what would happen to my performance as I walked further and got more and more tired.

There are many stories that resulted from that challenge, here is my favourite.

I was about two weeks into the Camino, just left Burgos, it was a hot day, which was appropriate as the town we were heading to, Hornillos del Camino, some people say gets its name from Horno which is a kiln, a small stove on the Camino. I like that. I did not like having my calf’s half baked on the way there.

At the albergue, where I was staying for the night, I asked if there was anywhere in the village that I could perform the play in. The man said to try a restaurant at the very edge of town. It didn’t take long to walk there as Hornillos is a small village, a population of 60 people.

I found the restaurant, and easily found the owner, Emma, from Ireland. It is a Korean restaurant. How did an Irish girl end up in the middle of Spain running a Korean restaurant? She married a Spaniard after meeting him on the Camino, hired a great Korean Chef and off she went. Emma also studied theatre back in Ireland, she was delighted that I would perform the play there that evening.

I started at 5:30pm, great audience, 13 people. A couple had driven up from Burgos as they had seen me in the paper the day before. They thought they would take a chance and just arrive in Hornillos and find us, I guess that wasn’t too hard as there is just one street. There was also a German, Danish, Korean and American audience.

The play went well. I was performing in a little recess and people sat in the restaurant. The recess allowed Emma to sit in there on a sofa to watch the play but be out of sight of the audience. She has a two-year-old and a newborn. The two-year-old was constantly running in and out of the performance area, nearly bumped into him a couple of times but it all added to the play. At one point I looked over to Emma to see she was breastfeeding the baby. No shame, I could see everything. You think as an actor that has been professional for nearly 17 years, I would have seen it all happen during a show. Well, this evening I really did see it all!

As I was clearing up my props an old gentleman from the audience approached me. In a very thick accent, he looked at me and said “You, me, selfie?” This was asked as he was pulling out his iPhone. Of course, how could I refuse? We took the photo and I asked him his name,

“Hendrick.”

Where are you from?

“Germany.”

How old are you Hendrick?

“84”.

Now, most people of this age have done the Camino before and are redoing it. Have you done the Camino before?

“No, I am here alone. I go very slow about 5 to 7 kilometres a day.”

Did you start in Saint Jean?

“Yes, and I go to Santiago.”

Why Hendrick? Why are you doing this?

“You will laugh at me.”

No, I won’t, I will not laugh at you.

“God told me to do it...But I am tired and need to go to bed, goodnight.”

And with that, he left.

I have thought and do think about Hendrick every day of my life. I am not saying that lightly, I really do.

My heart stopped when he said that, “God told me to do it.”

I don’t care if you believe in God or not, this man is an inspiration. One, I hope I live to be 84 and two I hope at the age of 84 I can not only feel inspired but be open and act upon that inspiration when it comes.

As you walk the Camino, occasionally, you will come across a memorial to someone who may have passed away on the way. Before my encounter with Hendrick, these memorials always made me a little sad. A couple of days out of Hornillos I came across a memorial to a lady who had passed away, she was 63. I immediately thought of Hendrick. I hope not, but there is a chance, that he may pass away while on the way. If he did what a glorious way for him to go out. Doing exactly what he felt he should be doing. He wasn’t doing anyone any harm; he was going about what he felt God wanted him to do.

What an amazing life lesson. Always do what inspires you and what calms your soul. Not only was he walking the Camino he was making the most of the experience, going to see an actor perform a play in a Korean restaurant, owned by an Irish girl, on the Meseta in Spain. He could have just taken the bus to Leon; I am so glad and grateful that he didn’t.

I consider myself a very lucky man to have met Hendrick.

Now as a side note and I don’t know if I should say this but I am. I have spoken to several people about that encounter, people that were there and not one of them remember Hendrick. I spoke to people who were walking around the same time and no one came across him. Michael said jokingly one day, maybe you met the Wandering Jew? If there is a God, I bet he has a wicked sense of humor and maybe I did!