My name is Liza Gere and I have a truly unique history I would like to share. First let me start by telling that I was born and raised in California. My professional background is in Information Technology. Up until 2004 I had a very normal life and was building a successful technology consulting company.
In February of that year I was out for a saturday morning motorcycle ride through the country when a truck swerved into my lane from oncoming traffic and hit me head on. This resulted in very serious injuries to my body and a brush with death. The left side of my body was destroyed. Broken ribs, broken pelvis. Shattered femur. But the worst damage was the lower part of my leg which was almost completely removed from my body. When I arrived at the hospital my mother was told the doctors were deciding where to amputate my leg, at the hip or below the knee. Somehow I miraculously escaped having that done to me.
During my three weeks in the Intensive Care Unit the doctors again scheduled to amputate my leg telling me there was far too much damage and that I had a less than 1% chance of it becoming functional. I was missing about 1.5 inches of bone and had lost all the skin around my calf as well as the majority of muscle tissues. They had grafted an artery just so I could have blood flow in my foot but even that was tenuous. As I considered amputation and what it would mean in my life I kept coming back to one thought. “If I do this without fully trying the do repairs first, I know I would always look back and ask myself “What If” “What if I had tried more?” “What if I gave up early?” “The doctors, who are trained professionals, kept telling me that even if it were possible to save my limb it would never function properly again. If they were able to save it they said I would always require assistive braces and walking devices. Going against the professionals I decided I at least wanted to try because my dream was to walk again, with my own two legs. If it threatens my life I will agree to the amputation. But I had to know I had really done my personal best before I agreed to the amputation because at least then I knew I would be able to live with myself and have no regrets and never thought I gave up early.
I finally found one doctor that was even willing to attempt the bone graft. But this was after over a year of not even knowing it could be possible. So for several years I was confined to a wheel chair. I underwent a total of 23 operations to rebuild my leg over the next 8 years. Each surgery followed by the recovery time and physical therapy and then another surgery. I
spent several years using crutches and then finally graduated to walking with a cane. I had a horrible limp and dealt with constant pain.
It was during the final few years of recovery that a bucket list dream I had of walking the Camino de Santiago came back into my head. I had learned of this walk years ago from a book I had read and told myself that one day I would walk this way. When this idea came back it seemed a bit insane considering that a simple trip to the grocery store could most times set me back two days to recover. Also I was having a problem when walking that sometimes my left leg would completely disappear from my brain and I would simply collapse to ground in a heap. My surgeon suggested removing the metal plate that ran the length of my upper leg from hip to knee. After having that surgery and recovering I was walking a bit better.
After years of being told by all the “Professionals” that I would never be able to walk with my own two feet and feeling like I had finally peaked as far as western medicine could take me. I had half heartedly accepted that I would probably always have a limp and walk with the support of my cane. But even this was a victory considering I wasn’t strapping on a prosthetic every morning. Also at this point I knew I was finally done with the constant cycle of surgery, recovery, & physical therapy. I was done with being in and out of the hospital. I had reached my goals. It was in this moment I desperately wanted a moment in my life that closed the door. A defining moment that said I done it! The idea to do a victory walk seemed the best way to celebrate the accomplishment. Even though I felt inwardly crazy for even thinking about flying to the other side of the world when I was still using a cane and had ongoing issues the idea seemed to grow. I couldn’t shake it.
So I did more research on what this camino thing really was. What I learned was that the Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage road that goes from the south of France all the way across the northern part of Spain. It is also called the Way of St. James. It began as a pilgrimage to visit the tomb of the apostle James to the cathedral of Santiago. It started primarily as a way of obtaining forgiveness. A criminal could even have their sentence removed by walking the road. The Vatican would issue a certificate called a “Compostella” that would serve as notice that the official title of Pilgrim but would also remove a criminal record as well or socially elevate you. The road is long and difficult especially in the mideval times.
For me it started simply as a victory walk. I knew that it sounded crazy.. A 728 kilometer walk. That is approximately 425 miles! The more research I did the more time I planned. I planned for all possible outcomes. I knew it was possble that I would fly to the other side of the planet and take just a few steps on the Camino only to have to return to the USA for health reasons. I knew that I couldn’t do the same distances that were suggested in the guide books. To receive the Compostella you only have to complete the last 100 kilometers. I figured it would be possible to do just a few kilometers a day and just do the the last 100 if the way was too difficult for me. I also knew I had to skip the first three days which take you over the Pyrennes mountains because my left ankle is fused and so any incline is very difficult and there also aren’t enough places to stop. So I decided to make Pamplona my starting point.
"One Pure Desire" is this story.