Blog No. 229 A Resurrection Story – To die or Not to Die - 20 April 2025

Easter Sunday celebrates the resurrection of Christ from the dead on the first Easter Sunday nearly 2,000 years ago.  Although his story is not quite as spectacular as that very first resurrection, my friend Dave has his own completely true resurrection story – and it too is spectacular.  Dave has given permission for me to share his story on this 2025 Easter Sunday.  I have not altered Dave’s wording in any way.

I repeat that this resurrection story is completely true.

To Die or Not to Die - A Resurrection Story - They say your life flashes in front of you just before you die. I suppose an hour of my life was spent this way. I had finished my work for the day, so I got changed, and was ready to cycle home, followed by another quick change into workout gear to drive to boxing training.  That’s when this uneasy feeling came over my whole body and mind. I knew that this was my time to meet my maker as the saying goes.  So, I cycled home, all 15kms, put my bike in the garage, went indoors and got changed for boxing. That’s when I realised, I had an important decision to make as there was only 20 minutes left before I would die. Yes, I can be that accurate. So, my choice was stay at home and die on my own not being found for a couple of weeks, or I could drive to boxing and die surrounded by people. Decision made - I would go to boxing – and a 10 minute drive turned into a traffic nightmare. 20 minutes later I was still only halfway to boxing. Then the Road Traffic Accident happened and I wrote off my car.  I parked my car into a tree while travelling at 60 kilometres per hour when I blacked out. For some reason I walked away uninjured from the crashed vehicle.  The off-duty Paramedic following me was amazed by this and explained what he had seen when I had blacked out at the wheel.  He had called for all 3 of the emergency services, who were all amazed I was uninjured, given that the vehicle was a Total Write-Off.  I went in the Ambulance and started talking to the Paramedic regarding symptoms and what had happened just prior to crash, i.e. Blacking Out. Then the real battle of Live or Die began.  My heart stopped and I had to be Resuscitated by using a Defibrillator.  I only remember the 1st resuscitation but apparently I had 3 in total from the crash site to the hospital.  The next 3 hours are vague for me, because I kept drifting in and out of consciousness, but the details got filled in later by the A&E Doctor and the Paramedic who treated me on route to the hospital. Whilst in A & E, I experienced the out of body looking down at myself syndrome. This happened numerous times. I would float above my body trying to leave this world, then they would Resuscitate me by using the Defibrillator and I would return to my body. As for the other parts of Emergency Medical Team protocols during those 3 hours, I have No Memory. Apparently, this happened 12 times, and the A & E Doctor described it as a battle of 2 Minds and Souls, one wanted to die and the other wanted to live. After 3 hours I regained full consciousness and that’s when the full story unfolded. The off-duty Paramedic had apparently watched me drive from the blackout point which I remember as approximately 600 metres further up the road from the crash site. He stated that I was apparently driving normally in the outside lane, then moved across into the nearside lane, having indicated my intention, then I picked a dropped kerb driveway entrance to drive past the first big tree, then I took out a Stobie Pole and (finally) parked my car into the second big tree. I ended up parallel parked with driver side wheels against the kerbstone not blocking either of the two lanes of traffic.  I awoke to a face full of Airbag. 2 weeks later whilst she was at work, I happened to meet by chance, the on-duty Paramedic who looked after me in the ambulance. When I described who I was and how she treated me at the scene of the vehicle accident, her face was a picture when she realised how quick a recovery I had made. She explained the double heartbeat printout of which she had kept a copy due to my unusual heartbeat patterns on the ECG Monitor. I explained that thanks to her, I am now fitted with a Pacemaker. She knew the Off-duty Paramedic and said she would pass on my Gratitude plus Thanks for what he did, as well as give him the update regarding the Pacemaker. I was kept in hospital for 2 weeks while they figured out what caused the heart malfunction etc. Eventually they diagnosed me with Bradycardia (slow resting heart rate); mine was in the low 40’s. I was then fitted with a Pacemaker and after a 6 weeks recovery period, I returned to work and continued my cycling plus all of my other fitness training regimes.

Blog No. 228 - Camino Soul Songs Part 31, 17 April 2025

On Monday the 13th of May 2013, Harold and I attended Mass at the Cathedral in Santiago and I then got a taxi to the airport and flew from Santiago to Dublin, where I was once again reunited with Margaret.  My Camino pilgrimage had come to an end.

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The Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.   I took this photo in August 2009 when I first walked part of the Camino.  The steps were huge and they were packed with people.

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The enormous city square on which the Cathedral and the Hotel Paradore are located.  I took this photo in 2009.  The buskers played beautiful music and the sun was shining brightly.  Appropriately, the buskers played Ave maria as I arrived in the square in 2009.

In August 2009, the square in Santiago was packed with peregrinos.  This photo gives an idea of just how many peregrinos in Santiago in the middle of the European summer.

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This photo shows the front of the Hotel Paradore on the Santiago city square.  Harold and I stayed one night in the Paradore after Harold negotiated for a better deal on price.

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Harold and I attended Mass in the Cathedral on the morning of Tuesday, 14th of May 2013.  We were very fortunate.  Someone had paid the Cathedral authorities the necessary fee to ensure the giant incense burner was used.  This photo shows the censer at floor level with the incense steaming out of it. 

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This photo shows the censer hoisted high above floor level in the Cathedral.  It was then swung by ropes in huge arcs above the people in the Cathedral with incense pouring out of it.  It was a magnificent spectacle and I was glad I was able to see it.

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I took this photo as the censer swung lower to the floor.  

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Diary Entry Made on Tuesday 14 May 2013 at 1:57 pm

I am writing this at Santiago airport and I attended the Pilgrim Mass in the cathedral at 12:00 noon today.  I got there just after 11:00 am to get an aisle seat in the transept.  The transept is where the giant incense burner (the censer) swings in huge arcs.  Today I was in luck.  Some group had made a "donation" so the incense burning did take place at the end of the Mass.

The cathedral was like a giant market place.  Tour groups wandered through behind signs reading "1" or "2" etcetera.  Other groups of people - tourists, pilgrims, and perhaps worshippers - constantly wandered into and around the cathedral.

The cathedral itself is vast, cold and full of echoes - a giant statement of raw, unabashed power.  The Mass was in Spanish and I understood nothing.  There was also a sermon in Spanish.  Six priests dressed in wonderful red robes conducted the Mass.  In addition, there was a nun who sang beautifully and many other functionaries, including those performed the incense ceremony at the end of the Mass.

The incense burner is very large and it swung in huge elongated arcs across the transept.  The swings took it very high up, nearly but not quite horizontal to the cathedral floor.  The censer was swung on a very thick rope rolled over a pulley high in the cathedral roof.

The whole incense ceremony was a wonderful spectacle.

Even during the course of the Mass there was constant movement as people kept entering, leaving and moving around the cathedral.  Even if I had had knowledge of Spanish, it would have been difficult to understand what was happening - both because of the constant movement and because of the unceasing echoes.

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Soul Song Number 36 - Sanctified

(14 May 2013)

This was the Pilgrim Mass,

I was sitting on a hard church pew inside a huge cathedral.

One that was cold and populated not just by people but also by noisy echoes.

The cathedral was a marketplace.

Tour groups dribbled behind numbers written on placards held aloft by tour guides.

Number 9 one placard proclaimed.

The paying customers of Placard Number 9 jostled for space with other paying customers,

The ones who were dribbling behind Placard Number 10.

Sprinkled among the tourists were cathedral staff,

Trying to create a pretence of order in the melee.

They spoke their instruction by rote.

"No camera flashes are permitted inside the cathedral."

"You can't sit here, these seats are reserved."

"You can't leave your backpack in the aisle."

Pilgrims streamed steadily into the cathedral.

This was their day and this was their Mass.

They were here for the daily Pilgrim Mass,

The one that happens every day at 12:00 noon.

For some of the residents of Santiago, this cathedral was their local church.

Some of them were present trying to worship God.

They needed deep faith to ignore the din that echoed around them.

Tour groups, pilgrims, worshippers, cathedral staff and clergy,

They all jostled for space.

This might have been a place for worship,

But it was also a place to conduct business.

Even when the Pilgrim Mass started,

The jostling continued at the sides.

People came in.

People left.

People simply wandered around.

While all this happened, the six red robed priests recited the Mass.

The Mass was in Spanish.

That was fine if you spoke Spanish.

Of course, the Mass should have been in Spanish.

This was a Spanish cathedral.

The sermon was also in Spanish.

So I understood none of the words of wisdom.

With the Mass finished, the incense censer was swung.

Using huge, leaping arcs, it swung across the cathedral,

Trailing sacred smoke as it went,

Inducing euphoria and expelling evil.

Because this cathedral houses the bones of The Saint,

The crowd was entitled to a spectacle

And the crowd was given its spectacle.

Yet amid the echoing confusion,

Something struggled to express itself.

What was it?

Was it an attempt to listen to and to be aware of the divine?

Yes it was surely there,

Even if at times it seemed to be drowned by the background noise.

Mass completed, I said some hasty farewells.

Then I bundled myself into a taxi.

My destination?

The airport.

Are I a better human being because I have walked The Camino?

Like The Saint, have I been sanctified?

I have no idea.

I will need to think about that later.

Right now, I have a plane to catch.

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My Pilgrim Passport showing the final page of stamps.

Blog No. 227 - Camino Soul Songs Part 30, 16 April 2025

On Monday the 13th of May 2013, Harold and I walked from Arca do Pino into Santiago de Compostella.  The Brierley distance today was 20.6 kilometres.  We got rooms in the Providore Hotel within easy walking distance of the Cathedral.

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After 29 days of continuous walking, I had reached the municipal boundaries of Santiago.  It felt so good!

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The Cathedral in Santiago is huge, presumably to impress on ordinary people how insignificant they are in the presence of God as represented by the Cathedral.  Harold and I were very pleased to have reached the Cathedral at last.

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The Camino was completely full of peregrinos on the edges of Santiago.  The numbers in this photo were typical of the numbers walking into Santiago.

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Once we left Arca do Pino on 13 May, the Camino took us for a pleasant stroll through a forest 

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More peregrinos walking towards Santiago.

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Street in the city of Santiago.  It was such a small distance to Santiago from Arca do Pino that we got there in time for lunch.

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This was my bed in the Hotel Paradore in the Santiago Square.  The bed was so soft, I had trouble getting to sleep.

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The Moon was tiny, but it too seemed to be smiling in the evening of that Monday. 

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Diary Entry Made on Monday 13 May 2013 at 6:45 pm

I am writing this in my hotel room at the Paradore Hotel in Santiago.  The Paradore is a luxury hotel on the square immediately opposite the cathedral in Santiago.  It was originally established as a pilgrim hostel but now it serves only those who can truly afford it.  Harold and I walked in off the square and Harold asked the price of a single room each.  Harold speaks fluent Spanish.  The lady on the desk originally wanted to charge €155.00 per person per room.  Harold argued her down to €120.00 each for own separate rooms, plus breakfast thrown in as well as the room.

We had coffee and toast and left Arca at about 8:00 am.  We had two further stops before reaching the cathedral square at about 1:30 pm.  The Brierley distance today was 20.6 kilometres.  The walking was through peaceful forest tracks until we started to climb Monte del Gozo.  Monte del Gozo seemed to go up for a very long time and once we got to the top it took ages of walking across the mountain slope before we started descending to Santiago.  There was glorious sunshine throughout the day.

We checked in at the Provodore at about 2:00 pm.  I went for a wander with Harold at 3:00 pm after cleaning up.  We got the Compostellas, had lunch and then went shopping for presents to take to Ireland tomorrow.

I can barely believe it.  I walked the Camino from Saint Jean in 29 consecutive days.  I will attend the Pilgrim Mass in the cathedral tomorrow.

Distance Walked Today: 20.6 kilometres.

Total Distance Walked So Far: 770.5 kilometres.

Total Distance Covered So Far: 791.7 kilometres including the 21.2 kilometres by taxi.

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Soul Song Number 35 - The River: Part II

(13 May 2013)

Today was the day it happened.

All of the Camino tributary streams joined up.

Today, every constituent of the Camino Pilgrim River flowed into Santiago Cathedral Square.

Some had walked from Saint Jean Pied de Port.

Some had walked from Roncesvalles.

Some from Pamplona.

Some from Burgos.

Some from Leon.

Some from Sarria.

Many had walked from numerous places in between.

Some didn't walk at all - preferring to cycle.

Some did very limited walking - preferring to spend much of their Camino travelling by bus.

Whatever means of travel they used to get there, they all formed part of the great River of Pilgrims.

The river that rushes to Santiago.

Today the River of Pilgrims moved through steady sunshine,

Sparkling with the knowledge that their pilgrimage had reached its sought after objective.

After such a long time spent journeying,

This anabranch of the River of Pilgrims had reached the Saint.

Just as a different anabranch of the river will reach the Saint tomorrow.

For you, it is over.

The journey is complete.

Only the necessary formalities remain.

What have you learned?

Hopefully, you are a kinder, gentler person.

It will have been worthwhile if you have learned that simple but difficult lesson.