Grandma's on the Camino

About the Book

In Grandma’s On the Camino, author Mary O’Hara Wyman, a 72 year old grandmother from San Francisco, relates her 2010 adventures walking 500 miles alone as a pilgrim on the Camino Frances. Her journey takes her from St. Jean Pied de Port in France, across the Pyrenees to Spain, then westward to the ancient spiritual destination of Santiago de Compostela. Through back-home reflections based on journal entries and postcards sent to her grand daughter, Mary describes engaging encounters with pilgrims of all ages and motivations, close-range observations of numerous animals on the trails, and the daily tasks of finding food and a bed each evening. Readers will gain keen insight into the physical day to day rigors facing a walking pilgrim, as Mary endured several falls on the trails, a serious foot injury, copious rain, mud and unseasonal cold and hot weather. Grandma’s On the Camino will inspire pilgrims and armchair readers of any age with Mary’s adventures and coping mechanisms, calmness under pressure, humorous outlook on life and truly spiritual approach to walking the Camino Frances to Santiago de Compostela. You will walk as a pilgrim with Mary through every word in the book.

About the Author

Mary O’Hara, born on a Midwest farm in 1940, studied eight years in a one-room country school, four in a convent and six years at a Jesuit University before teaching in St. Louis at Roosevelt High School and the Job Corps. In the early 70’s, living in the Village in New York City, she married Larry Wyman and moved to San Francisco, raising two children, Amelia and Nathan. Mary retired from the US Dept. of Labor as a federal Job Corps Program Manager. For more than 20 years, Mary has been deeply involved with the Centering Prayer Christian meditation movement. In 2010, at age 70, she walked every single step of the 500 mile Camino Frances in Spain to Santiago de Compostela.