A Tale of Two Pilgrims

By Daniel DeKay

Salvitur ambulando
‐ St. Augustine (All things are solved by walking)

Jeanette Lansbergen closed the front door of her home in Rotterdam and began walking south. Two months later she arrived in St. Jean Pied de Port. Along the way she camped out, cooking her own meals. “It was a lonely time. I was alone almost the entire two months. But that was alright with me, I wanted to meet myself on the walk.”

Walking through Belgium, Jeanette came across an old castle that housed the Sisters of Jerusalem convent. Jeanette’s mother had been a nun until her thirties when she left the convent, married and had eight children. The Sisters invited her in, and gave her a meal and a bed. They took her into their walled garden and asked her, “Tell us your story.” The following morning at mass they prayed for Jeanette, and all sang together. Jeanette says, “They opened my heart, I felt I was coming home. I found my belief again.” After that Jeanette stopped in every church she found along the way, feeling “free and protected” within those ancient stone walls.

Franc Chacon, member of American Pilgrims and 2009 hospitalero trainee, is a firefighter in Santa Barbara, California. He had been working long hours, lots of overtime, and found himself wondering about the purpose of it all. He is a big man with a hearty laugh and a quick smile. One instantly feels at ease with Franc. He’d been to Spain before, on a surf trip with his son. “But I only saw Spain through a window”, he says. “I wanted to go for a long walk, and I wanted to see Spain.” He found the Camino on the internet, and only spoke to one person who’d been there before. “He wouldn’t tell me very much about it”, Franc says, “and now I know why. He just encouraged me to go. Everyone has their own Camino experience and he didn’t want to interfere with mine.”

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