Walking for George
Enrico writes:
“We lived in Italy for a year where George was diagnosed with colon cancer. We were in a village called San Casciano in the Chianti region. In that area we discovered a very old pilgrims route called ‘Via Francigena’ which starts in Canterbury and ends in Rome (literally at the Vatican as pilgrims used to visit the Pope). The best bit (I know I am very biased) is in Tuscany near where we lived, We did some of it with the children and said one day we would have done the whole thing.
In her last days George asked me to do it and take all of our friends on the journey. As it is a big challenge, she asked me to raise money for a charity that can help our children or other children who lost their parents.
The idea behind all of this is to try to make some positive coming out of the most difficult situation one can experience in life. We can’t change the fact that she is gone, but we had a wonderful life together. The last year was both the best and the worst of our lives. I would like to ideally join what we believe to be our two homes: Hampshire (Abbots Ann) and San Casciano (Tuscany). The message that George wanted to send is: do not postpone anything in life. Just do it, take the risk, it might go wrong but it might be marvellous. This way we can really understand life is worth living.
She wrote: ‘Papa’ (daddy in Italian) please do the Via Francigena, do it for me, do it for us, do it for others.”
So – this is where that challenge begins. Please join us.
