Irish mother pens book after walking Spanish Camino in wake of son’s death

In ‘My Camino Through Grief,’ Lucy Dineen chronicles her journey from grief to healing

Irish woman Lucy Dineen has penned ‘My Camino Through Grief,’ which details her and her husband’s 38-day journey along the Camino de Santiago as a way of processing the death of their 25-year-old son.

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Speaking with ilovelimerick, Dineen said: “This book is about my struggle with grief following the death of my only son Robert, who died suddenly at age 25.”

In May 2015, Robert Dineen died from a seizure, a condition that he suffered from for about 15 years.

“Robert suffered with mental health issues,” Dineen said. “Fear and anxiety were always a dark shadow lurking behind him, his fear manifested in seizures which he referred to as his monster.”

“His courage and strength and his ability to reach out to others inspired me to write his story.”

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Lucy explains: “After Robert’s death, I took 6 months out of work and embarked the Camino de Santiago journey. I walked with my husband Gerard for 38 days. During this time while walking, it gave me the head space to explore my thoughts and feelings and this terrible new situation we found ourselves in.”

Beginning their journey in the Pyrenees in France, Lucy and Gerard culminated their journey at the Santiago de Compostela in Spain on October 18, 2017, their late son’s birthday.

Lucy wrote: “The Camino stripped us of everything and became a journey of personal exploration, bringing us to a place where we had to face our pain, with nowhere to hide, as we desperately searched for meaning and inspiration.”

Lucy explains how her daughter Rachel gifted her a notebook to write in throughout the grueling trek, which amounted to about 1,000 km.

“At the end of each day I wrote in my journal, and by the end of the Camino, I realized I had enough to fill a book. So I thought what better way to try and immortalize my son than by self-publishing a book.”

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‘My Camino Through Grief’ will be released in Ireland on May 17.