The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Maureen tells David that Harold is still walking and sends her postcards and pens. David doesn’t respond so she lets him go. Talking to David is becoming uncomfortable for Maureen, who has also failed to tidy his bedroom in some time. She thinks of her outing with Rex as a turning point, after which she moved suddenly back into the main bedroom where Harold sleeps. Maureen has resolved to try one new thing each day that Harold is gone. Rex is preoccupied with some project, which turns out to be a present for her. The gift is a framed map of England with pushpins marking Harold’s progress so far. Rex helps Maureen hang it on the wall.

Maureen and Rex go on daily outings together, even traveling to Bantham, near the beach where David almost drowned. Maureen tells Rex about her marriage’s early years, when she and Harold were enough for each other. She can’t understand how they were once so happy and now everything she says to Harold comes out hurtful. Rex understands. Later, Maureen is alone in bed, thinking of Harold touching her. She hears Rex leave in his car and resolves to organize Harold’s clothes in the main bedroom’s closet. Doing so, she finds the tweed jacket he wore to David’s graduation from Cambridge.

At David’s graduation, Maureen and Harold waited for two hours where David instructed them, only to miss the entire ceremony. Maureen had blamed Harold. After graduation, Maureen made excuses for her son’s lack of initiative and ignored the money that disappeared from her purse. Eventually, a doctor prescribed David antidepressants and sleeping pills. David interviewed with the army, and his hastily shaved scalp made Maureen cry. Now, Maureen wonders what more she and Harold could have done for their son. She pairs each of her outfits with one of Harold’s, arranging them in the closet as if standing together. Outside, Rex begins is marking out a garden bed for Maureen. She plants shoots, grateful “to nurture something again.”