The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Harold continues to walk north through his town, noticing all the businesses along the way. When he sees the travel agency, he remembers how his mother used to dream of escaping to a tropical island. He also thinks of the vacation he, Maureen, and David used to take each year. Harold realizes he missed the midday post collection and decides to continue walking to the next mailbox. First, he stops at a gas station for something to eat. The station attendant, a young girl with dirty hair and a wan face, stares blankly at him when he asks for “light refreshments” (14) but eventually helps him find a burger and fries. Harold mentions he is passing through on his way to mail a letter to a friend who has cancer, and the girl’s countenance changes as she shares that her aunt also had cancer. To her, the key to surviving is to stay positive and believe that the person can recover. She confidently tells him that “[…] if you have faith, you can do anything” (15). Moved by her vulnerability and insight, Harold sees the girl in a new light. She says faith is not so much about religion but is about believing you can make a difference in someone’s life. Her aunt told her the support gave her hope when she felt hopeless. Stunned by the young girl’s kindness, Harold comes to a revelation. An impatient customer breaks the reverie, and Harold quickly pays and leaves the station.

Processing the girl’s philosophy, 65-year-old Harold ponders all the physical pain he thought accompanied old age and realizes he never felt more energetic than he does at this moment. Walking straight out of Kingsbridge, he looks at the landscape that lies in front of him and considers the distance to Berwick-upon-Tweed. Thinking of all the small opportunities he missed in life, including mistakes he made with his son and in his marriage, he realizes it is not too late and resolves to make a change. He finds a phone booth and calls St. Bernadine’s, but when he asks to speak to Queenie, the nurse says she cannot talk to him. Harold tells the nurse to explain to Queenie that he is walking to her, and she must stay alive until he arrives. Retrieving her letter from his pocket, he adds the note to wait for him and drops it in the nearest postbox before setting back out on the road north.

Back at home, Maureen continues scrubbing every surface in the house while becoming increasingly worried about Harold. Her anxiety grows when she realizes he left his cell phone at the house. Harold never does anything out of the ordinary, and she begins to worry he is ill or lost. When the phone rings, she assumes it is Harold and immediately begins to ask where he is, but it is Rex calling to check on him since he didn’t see him return from the mailbox. Maureen panics and lies to Rex, telling him Harold is home, but she immediately feels guilty. When the phone rings again, she assumes it is Rex, but it is Harold calling from a phone booth outside a pub in Loddiswell. Shocked that he is five miles away, Maureen asks if he is drinking. He explains that he only had a lemonade, and he is going to walk to Berwick to see Queenie and save her. Angrily, Maureen exclaims, “I think not. You can’t save people from cancer, Harold. Not unless you are a surgeon. And you can’t even slice bread without making a mess. This is ridiculous” (23). Unfazed, Harold explains what happened at the station with the young girl and how she gave him the idea to save Queenie. Maureen questions him about how he will eat and sleep, and he does not claim to have all the answers. All he knows is that he must take this journey, and he wants her blessing. Harold’s pleading only angers Maureen more. She sarcastically tells him to take his journey, but she doubts he will make it very far. After the call, Maureen slumps in the chair, still in shock over Harold’s decision to see Queenie again, and feels very alone in her house as the day fades to dark.

The narrative flashes back briefly to Harold’s earlier life. He is a tall man who had an unhappy childhood. Never feeling wanted by his mother, he learned to make himself appear small so no one would notice him. After leaving home at 16, Harold met and fell in love with Maureen. The couple moved to Kingsbridge for his job at the brewery. After 45 years, Harold retired, leaving with little fanfare and only a copy of Motorist’s Guide to Great Britain and a voucher for the brewery as his reward for a lifetime’s work.

Back in the present timeline, Harold awakens in a hotel north of Loddiswell, disoriented by his surroundings. Once he gets his bearings, he thinks about how unprepared he is to make the journey. With no map, compass, or proper walking shoes, he thinks Maureen may be right; he will not make it very far. He recalls his phone conversation with her the previous day. Harold felt confident he was making the right choice. However, her biting words crushed his spirit and made him feel heavy with regret: “You couldn’t blame her for what she felt about him as a husband, and yet he wished it were otherwise” (28). After examining his feet and finding them in good condition, he decides to make his way downstairs for some breakfast before continuing his journey. However, as soon as he moves, a painful cramp seizes his calf. Staring out the window and once again doubting his ability to walk to Berwick, Harold considers returning home to collect his phone and proper shoes for the journey. He worries, though, that if he returns home, Maureen will convince him not to return to the road. Inspired by the beauty he sees out the windows, he decides not to abandon his quest.

The breakfast room is filled with people, and Harold, self-conscious about his appearance, is hesitant to enter. The same woman who checked him into the hotel the previous night takes his order, and she comments on the weather being favorable for his trip. The waitress asks if he does these types of trips often, and suddenly everyone in the room is listening to their conversation. Harold simply shakes his head and tries to ignore the feeling that everyone is staring at him. After she leaves, one of the ladies at the table next to him asks the reason for his journey. Harold simply responds that he is walking to Berwick to visit a friend who has cancer. Suddenly, everyone in the room has questions for him. They are concerned about the distance and wonder if he has the proper training for such an undertaking. Another guest asks if he is on a religious pilgrimage, and a man in the corner asks if his friend knows he is coming to see her. Harold explains he only left a phone message, as the decision to go was spontaneous. One woman begins to tell the story of two religious pilgrims who went on a peace march through India in 1968. Feeling claustrophobic from all the attention and from having the flimsiness of his plan exposed, Harold wishes he could escape the room. He offers the curious crowd one final explanation of his trip, saying his friend was once his coworker who did something kind for him, and now he wishes only to help her stay alive by walking to her. Harold sadly remembers the last time he saw Queenie at the brewery before she unexpectedly left. No longer hungry, Harold retreats to his room.

Downcast and defeated, Harold stares at his reflection and realizes he is too old for such a journey. He decides to check out of the hotel and return home. When he enters the hotel lobby, the breakfast guests greet him. They are all happy to see he has not yet left. They wanted to wish him luck on his trip and offer their support. A businessman from Hexam gives Harold a business card and says to give him a call when he is in the area. Humbled by their kindness, Harold realizes they were not judging him but actually believed in him, and he sets back out on the road with renewed enthusiasm and vigor to make it to Berwick.

As he walks, Harold notices the beauty of nature as he never has before. Though he feels slightly uneasy about not having his cell phone in the event of an emergency, as he walks, he settles into a comfortable rhythm, enjoying his solitude and freedom. His plan for the day is to work his way to South Brent, where he will stay for the night. As he considers the roads and the time it will take to walk them as opposed to driving, he remembers the times he and Queenie drove together while conducting business for the brewery. He didn’t take the time then to notice the scenery outside the car. While he thinks fondly of Queenie, another memory, Maureen’s hatred of the scent of flowers, intrudes into his thoughts. Maureen used to wear a flower in her hair or buttonhole, but she no longer does. He thinks he will bring Queenie a bouquet when he arrives in Berwick and fantasizes about finding her sitting by the window awaiting his arrival. Harold’s thoughts are interrupted by a passing car; its occupants taunt him, calling him a grandpa. After the unpleasant encounter, Harold begins to become aware of his intense hunger and his painful, blistered feet. He stops at a pub for lunch. While he eats, he thinks about his difficult childhood and how his father used to say cruel, degrading things to him. As he removes his shoes to soothe his feet, the landlord approaches him and starts a conversation. The pub owner comments on his wife’s cleaning the house on sunny days, and Harold thinks about how Maureen cleans constantly, making it difficult to live for fear of making a mess. Harold explains he is a traveler and recently retired from the brewery. The pub owner knows Harold’s former boss, Napier, and mentions the man’s violent personality. Harold, not wishing to speak of his now-dead boss, changes the subject and tells the landlord about Queenie. Moved by Harold’s story, the landlord shares a story about a woman he once loved but lost due to his selfishness and poor choices. Harold was never romantically in love with Queenie but allows the man to finish his story. The landlord states that everyone has a past full of regrets, but it should not hold people back from living their lives. He encourages Harold to get to Queenie as quickly as possible. As he leaves the pub, Harold thinks about how Queenie kept track of the mileage on their trips, never lying about the distance.

The second half of the day unfolds in waves of physical and emotional agony as Harold’s feet become unbearably painful and his legs ache, unused to intense exertion. As he fights to push past the pain, he begins to retreat into his memory. He remembers a time when David was six and almost drowned at the beach. Harold stopped to grab his shoes, and the lifeguard had to rescue the child. Maureen was angered by his misstep and always blamed him for David’s near-death experience. Later, Harold asked David why he swam so far out from the shore, and his son rudely answered that he knew he was already in trouble, so he thought he would just keep going. As he walks, Harold is not sure why these memories appear, but they are as painful to him as the blisters on his feet. Having become thirsty to the point of collapse, Harold knocks on a cottage door and is greeted by a kind woman who brings him multiple glasses of water. She brings out two chairs and sits with him while he rests. He dozes off briefly; when he awakens, she brings him food. The woman begins to talk about how the simple things in life like walking and eating are often harder than one thinks. When she says raising children is the hardest, Harold thinks again about David. Maureen took to mothering naturally, but learning to love David was harder for Harold. This difference took its toll on their marriage. Caring for and protecting his infant son overwhelmed Harold, and he compared himself to other fathers: “He wondered if other men had found the new responsibility of parenting as terrifying, or whether it had been a fault that was only in himself” (51). Harold thanks the woman for her kindness and leaves as he privately cries.

The road and the impossible distance stretch out in front of Harold, and he is propelled again back into his thoughts. He regrets not having any more children, but Maureen only wanted David. The two seemed to have a secret bond that was unknowable to Harold. Even when David rejected them, Maureen defended her son, which drove a wedge further between Harold and his wife. The couple even began sleeping in separate rooms. As the painful emotional wounds of his past resurface, his present physical pain intensifies. He thinks again of Queenie, who was an anomaly as the only woman working in the brewery’s finance department. When he told Maureen and David about her position over Christmas dinner, teenage David made callous and derogatory remarks about Queenie being a woman; Maureen did not correct or admonish him. When Harold challenged his son, David rudely left the table. Maureen excused his behavior, claiming he was “clever” (54). Emerging from his memories, Harold stops walking for the day and buys bandages, personal care items, and washing powder. He finds a room for the night and collapses in bed into a deep sleep after his meal.

Maureen waits for Harold to call or return home while she tries to make sense of his decision to walk to Queenie. She wants to talk to David about the situation but fears she would miss him and become sad. Maureen decides Harold is like his mother, Joan, who left her family without explanation; however, Maureen also admits to herself she often pondered leaving, and the only thing that kept her from it was David, not her love of Harold. She remembers her parents’ disapproval of Harold, whom she recklessly married despite their protestation. As she rifles through Harold’s personal belongings looking for any clue as to his intentions, she finds two photographs in the drawer of his bedside table: one of her and one of David on the day he got his first pair of shoes. She orders travel brochures for a summer cruise vacation and tries to ignore the crushing silence of the empty house. Though it is Harold’s responsibility, Maureen takes the trash out to the curb, and Rex calls out, inquiring about Harold. Maureen continues in her lie and tells him Harold twisted his ankle on his walk and is in bed. After assuring Rex Harold will be fine after some rest, she returns inside to hear the phone ringing. It was Harold, but he did not leave a message, and she cannot trace the number to return the call. She waits all night hoping he will call again, but he does not. When the travel brochures arrive, she throws them in the trash.