Felisa Medel Mediavilla (3 November 1910 – 20 October 2002)
Maria Teodora Medivalla Rodriguez (18 April 1933 – 15 March 2021)
Widowed in 1958, Felisa worked in the fields like many women of her time to support her family. When she was almost 70 years old, Jesús Martínez Cañas, priest of the San Antonio neighbourhood in Logroño, asked her for help to count the number of pilgrims passing her humble house 'El Chozo' on the path to the city from Viana. Even though she was illiterate, she recorded a small pencil line for each passing pilgrim in the folio book, offering them a fig, water and wishing them love on the way. At the end of each day her daughter Maria counted the number of lines and entered the total in the book.
Many pilgrims asked for a ‘sello’ in their credencials and although Felisa and her daughter had asked the City Council in Logroño numerous times for a stamp, it was a pilgrim from Madrid who eventually designed and posted the famous ‘Higos, agua y Amor” stamp to them.
After Felisa died in 2002 at age 92, Maria continued the tradition of sitting at a ramshackle table under the large fig tree for 12 hours a day in all weather, offering a sello, figs love and water as well as coffee and biscuits to passing pilgrims. “The day I die” she said in 2015, “this will all be over. My daughter Feli helps me but she has her job and she can’t leave it to attend pilgrims without any payment.” On 15 March 2021 Maria passed away in her sleep at age 87.
I first met Felisa in 2002. She was partially blind but greeted each passing pilgrim with a big smile and an offer of figs and water. She died later that year and Maria took over the counting of passing pilgrims. I started collecting photographs and stories of Felisa and compiled a brag-book of photographs and a small booklet of all the stories submitted by pilgrims on the forums, including this one.
In 2007 I walked that way again with my friend Marion. As Maria opened the brag-book she looked shocked and cried out, “Mi madre! Oh, mi madre!” She covered her face with her apron and wept. It wasn’t the reaction we’d anticipated and we didn’t know what to do. She told us that many pilgrims send them post cards but she didn’t have photographs of her mother.
After that, I visited her every time I was in Spain and got to meet her daughter Feli. We kept in touch via email and every time a friend or amaWalkers group was on the
Camino Frances, I sent a small gift and a letter to Maria. I was planning on taking her to Santiago but she had to have a knee operation and couldn’t travel.
In 2017 I walked the Camino with my sister-in-law. We walked in Felisa’s memory and asked for a memorial Compostela, which we took to Maria and Feli.
In August last year when Johnny and friends did a “We Walk for You”
Camino Frances I asked him to take a letter and gift to Maria. He sent me a short video of her reading the letter. It is the last time I ‘saw’ her. Maria passed away on 15 March.
Feli wrote, "She went without suffering. The day before we were all together, including Iria her great-granddaughter, a perfect day. But the Lord took her in her sleep and she did not suffer. You know that she loved you very much, that remains in your memory."
May she RIP.
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