<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>In a message dated 12/14/2001 6:17:44 PM Eastern Standard Time, WA6RPRaAOL.COM writes:<BR>
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<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">My friend, Richard, set out last May to walk the Camino. He carried a small<BR>
pack but lots of hope. He wanted so much to make the journey that he went<BR>
against his doctor's advice. After only 3 days he ended up in the hospital<BR>
and was forced to return with tha journey unfinished. After only a few weeks<BR>
he ended up on hospice and died this morning. When I last visited with him<BR>
on Tuesday afternoon, he said that he was sorry that he could not have<BR>
finished his walk. I told him that I would one day finish it for him and<BR>
walk the Camino in his honor and memory. I think that his gentle spirit will<BR>
be there along the Way of St. James when I go.<BR>
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Thank you for sharing this wonderful, but sad account of your friend, Richard with us. I have cancer myself but it is under control and I was able to complete the Camino in May/June 2001 with God's help and the support of numerous other pilgrims that bonded with me and gave me encouragement and their love. This enabled me to complete the walk. I now number them as my closest friends. One sent me a box of chocolates from Geneva and others have been equally generous with their messages about 9/11 and more beyond the space here to tell you about. I am going to South Africa in March for a Camino reunion with a whole group of people I met along the Camino. I only wish that Richard was among us physically, but in the spirit I know he is. Howard Mendes NYC </FONT></HTML>