Celebrating 50 years of marriage on ‘The Way’

Editor’s note: This is the final story in a three-part series documenting different perspectives of the Camino de Santiago journey to the final resting place of St. James in Spain .
 
Russ and Shirley Staiger, parishioners of Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Bismarck, wanted to do something special for their 50 ^th wedding anniversary last year. They chose to walk the Camino de Santiago, known as “The Way of St. James.” 
 
Shirley explained that there are several different routes to choose from to reach the final destination of the Cathedral de Santiago in de Compostela, Spain. They walked around 525 miles, in five weeks, beginning in August at Roncesvalles, about 4k from the French border.
 
Even though they are both in their seventies, Shirley said she and Russ live very active lives and did fine with very little preparation. They learned a lot about the Camino from reading and talking with Fr. Klemmer, who had completed the walk in 2013. “Good footwear is critical,” Russ explained. “We walked the whole path without a single blister.”
 
 “You don’t have time to hear about everything God has done for us in the 54 years that we have known each other.  It was supposed to be a thank you from us to God, but it became an indescribable gift from Him. You never get even with God,” Shirley remarked.
 
According to Russ, when they started out, he wondered how they were ever going to make the entire 525 miles. “It took around 10 days before everything meshed,” he said. “At one point we turned to each other and realized we had the rhythm.”
 
Even though he and Shirley had been together for so many years, Russ said there were things it seemed they never had time to talk about before. “Or sometimes, we just walked and said nothing,” he said.
 
There were many little hamlets, sometimes with just a few houses, but there would be a church. Accommodations were mostly simple and they often shared bathrooms and sleeping quarters with large numbers of other pilgrims.  People usually were back on the road before the sun was even up.
 
Shirley marveled that in one small Spanish village, she had stopped to take a picture of a beautiful rose bush on the side of a church. “It was huge and had every color of rose,” she explained. “This diminutive little woman ran over to us and explained she’s the tenth generation in the family responsible for the rose bush.” The woman pushed aside the bush to reveal a faded plaque on the church that looked like it was dated 1017.
 
At one point, crossing a long bridge—perhaps half a mile—several hundred feet over a rushing river during a torrential rainstorm filled them with fear. “If you lost your footing you'd be gone,” Russ said. “My poncho got caught in the rail and wind started to balloon it up.  I had to rip it to keep going.”
 
Aside from the treacherous crossing, Russ described the journey as a veritable rose garden of life between the warmth of the villagers and pilgrims and the countryside.  “Here, everything is hurry, hurry, hurry,” he said. “There, it all goes away. Your mission is to carry your backpack, walk the distance ahead of you, and just take everything in. You just walk along and talk with people from all over the world and share stories.”
 
There were many “God-incidences” during their journey. In one village, Russ realized aloud that it was Sept, 19—Shirley’s birthday. A Korean couple heard and started singing happy birthday. Later, they stopped to have lunch together and discovered that the Korean couple was from Sacramento, Calif. and the man had been best friends with Shirley’s uncle, nicknamed Smokey, who had brought him into the Cursillo movement at church. The man, in turn, had gotten his Korean neighborhood involved. Shirley had just learned from days earlier from relatives that Smokey had died unexpectedly. Until that moment, the man did not know his good friend had passed away.
 
Shirley shared that five times when they were lost, she believes they were helped by angels that appeared as people who spoke perfect English. Each time, when they turned to thank the person, no one was there.
 
Russ said that he and Shirley kept simplifying along the way, sending excessive supplies ahead at three different stops. “It was freeing to get down to the basics,” he said. The beauty of simplifying stayed with them upon their return.  When Russ woke up in his own home the first night, he forgot where he was and admired the beautiful bathroom. Then he realized it was his own. The next morning he cancelled their plans to remodel it. Shirley said she packed up three bags of clothing to donate after their return.
 
“We came away with something indescribable,” Russ said. “You have to experience it yourself.” A year later, Shirley and Russ said rarely a day goes by that they don’t think about their time on the Camino.