Phil Volker was a Catholic pilgrim, Marine Corps vet, master woodworker, husband, father, and grandfather. He lived on Vashon Island in Washington, where he spent his last ten years journeying with cancer and writing about that and his camino every day. He mapped the Camino de Santiago, which became a metaphor for his life, until his death in October 2021.

Kathryn Barush is Thomas E. Bertelsen Jr. Chair and associate professor of art history and religion at the Graduate Theological Union and Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, California. She is the author of Imaging Pilgrimage: Art as Embodied Experience (2021).

Rebecca Graves has been a teacher, neurodevelopmental therapist, writer, and fiber artist. She lives on Vashon Island, where she and Phil Volker were happily married for forty-five years.