As Harold continues his pilgrimage, I've gotten a lot more interested because of the many different people he has met along the way. They have given him either the motivation to continue this journey or even have opened his eyes as to why he is doing this pilgrimage in the first place. To continue on from where we left off, chapter 13 begins with Martina offering a helping hand by opening up her house to Harold after his fall.Martina insists he should stay with her and give up on this journey to Berwick because of the injury he's gotten from the lack of physical strength he has. Harold being hard headed, reminding me of myself sometimes, is being stubborn and decides to not fail Queenie by stopping this journey. Basically the motto he is going after is "never say never", following Justin Bieber's footsteps.  

Over the days he spent at Martina's household they begin to share a lot as well as bond as they confess to each other the personal secrets about one another. I found one quotation that was mentioned through their dialogue which was very interesting and yet so very true. "For a while there was only the silence that carried her words. It struck Harold afresh how life could change in an instant. You could be doing something so everyday-walking your partner's dog, putting on your shoes- and not knowing that everything you wanted you were about to lose" (Joyce, 144). Reading this, it sounds to me that he is specifically talking about how we don't tend to appreciate our loved ones enough, and that we could lose them in a matter of seconds. 

This is something I feel that everyone could connect with or at least understand. Connecting this to a novel we all are familiar with, The Namesake, it shares the same concept of losing a loved one. As Gogol isolates himself from his parents, especially his father, he regrets the lack of interaction he had with them after he found out that his father had passed away. He later shows process of conformity that he's going through by going out of his way to do the things that pleased his parents like taking off his shoes when he came inside, or even picking up their calls and visiting more. Personally I can connect to this as well within my own family. My dad works for the United Nations and so he is required to travel a lot. Whenever he comes to visit, my siblings and I usually get sick of the over affectionate care he shows us by calling us everyday about outer where abouts and trying to be in our personal lives. But as soon as its time for him to leave, we are the sadest human beings on earth, and start regretting the times we haven't spent with him when we could.

Overall, I feel that people will go extreme lengths to be with a loved one that may have been taken for granted.