Bahá’í World/Volume 18/Elizabeth Kidder Ober
ELIZABETH KIDDER OBER
1902—1979
ALICE G. KIDDER
1902—1981
O ye handmaids of the merciful Lord! How many queens of this world laid down their heads on a pillow of dust and disappeared. No fruit was left of them, no trace, no sign, not even their names . . . Not so the handmaids
who ministered at the Threshold of God; these have shone forth like glittering stars in the skies of ancient glory, shedding their splendours across all the reaches of time.
These words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá call to my mind the lives of dedication to the Cause of Baha’u’lláh, and of service to the world of humanity, of our dearly loved twins, Dr. Alice Gertrude Kidder and Dr. Elizabeth Meriel Kidder Ober.
Born on 22 September 1902, in Beverly, Massachusetts, to Arthur Harvey Kidder, pattern—maker, and Gertrude Maria Glines, schoolteacher, Alice and Elizabeth were raised, with their brother Harold, two years older than they, in a loving and spacious rural home.
By the time they reached age eleven, the spirit of dedication to the service of mankind that was to characterize their lives was born. Their mother, active in the Congregational Church, often arranged visits from missionaries home on furlough from various countries. Many times Alice and Elizabeth, as children, were sent to the railroad station in their ponycart to welcome and bring home those missionary speakers. Learning about mission life abroad decided the young girls that the only hope for the masses was education in physical hygiene and the acquisition of spiritual virtues.
Their father taught them to look always with a searching eye for the truth in every situation. These parental influences set the pattern of their lives. They pursued studies in osteopathic, homeopathic and naturopathic medicine. Elizabeth became an osteopathic physician first, graduating in 1927. Alice graduated a decade later and in the interval looked after their parents and carried on their father’s flourishing greenhouse business.
When, in 1934, Elizabeth learned of the Bahá’í Faith from Lorna Tasker, a patient and later dear friend of hers, she knew in an instant that she would become a Bahá’í. At precisely the same time in another city, Alice first heard the name of Bahá’u’lláh. The twins hastened to share their momentous discovery, only to find the other already knew. Taught by other prominent Bahá’í teachers, including Helen Archambault, Alice’s spiritual mother, and Grace Robarts Ober and her husband
Elizabeth Kidder Ober
Harlan Ober, patients of Elizabeth’s, the twins became Bahá’ís in Boston in 1939 and served the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh to the end of their earthly lives.
Harlan and Grace Ober had been married by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1912. Harlan was devastated by Grace’s death in 1938 but learned to find comfort in an awareness of her continuing influence in his life. He never doubted that part of her legacy to him was yet another extremely happy marriage. On 21 June 1941 he married Dr. Elizabeth Kidder. A postscript in the handwriting of Shoghi Effendi appended to a letter written on his behalf on 20 June 1941 conveyed the Guardian’s ‘heartfelt congratulations’ and the assurance of his ‘best wishes’.
Grace Ober’s dearly loved nephew, the Hand of the Cause John A. Robarts, gives a glimpse of his great affection and esteem for the twins:
‘My Aunt Grace’s death was a shock. We all loved her very much, but three years later Harlan married Elizabeth Kidder, and as she had a twin sister, Alice, this meant that while I had lost one aunt, I acquired two new almost-aunts. They were delightful people, devoted
Alice G. Kidder
Bahá’ís, skilled osteopaths, and with Harlan were Bahá’í pioneers in Southern Africa near where my wife, Audrey, and I lived with two of our children, Patrick and Nina. They kept us all in good health. In describing their dedication to serving others, Harlan said, “They are like two fire-horses; come back to the firehall after standing for hours at a fire, exhausted, but ready to dash out to another fire without a murmur of complaint.”’
Anyone who knew Elizabeth and Alice will recall with awe and amusement their extraordinary relationship as identical twins. As children they delighted in confusing their teachers and classmates; as doctors in practice together, they could substitute for each other when necessary, some patients never knowing the difference. They had telepathic communication: while one wrote a letter, the recipient was already sending the answer before having received the question. Whenever one was ill, the other came immediately to the rescue with medical expertise and that loving spirit of service for which they were both famous. They shared an uncanny ability to perceive and rise to the needs of others—physical, emotional or spiritual needs—and in the
process, those who opened themselves to their care discovered such qualities as Alice’s self-effacing efficiency, her resourcefulness, tenderness and wisdom; or Elizabeth’s sense of humour and determination to explore alternatives, overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
Elizabeth and Harlan were elected to the Spiritual Assembly of Beverly in 1942. They held regular firesides, travel-taught, gave public talks. For a time Elizabeth served on the Regional Teaching Committee. Alice was elected to the Spiritual Assembly of Greenwich. All three were, at different times, delegates to national conventions and speakers at Louhelen Bahá’í School; Elizabeth and Harlan also at Green Acre.
In May 1953 at the Mother Temple of the West, Alice responded at once to the launching of the beloved Guardian’s Ten Year Crusade by offering to pioneer to the Union of South Africa. In March 1954, after correspondence had been delayed in the committee. Shoghi Effendi advised her to go immediately. Within two days she was on her way. Elizabeth and Harlan deputized her. During her pilgrimage, en route to South Africa, Shoghi Effendi directed her to Pretoria, the capital city, where she arrived in April 1954. It was during this pilgrimage that she first drew close to Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum, Shoghi Effendi’s wife, through treating her and spending some time in her company—a bond which was later to develop and mean so much in both their lives.
Alice’s life, alone in her pioneer post, was an example of complete faith and courage as she quietly went about finding and furnishing a downtown office, and building up a medical practice among the white population in accordance with the prevailing racial restrictions of the land. With discretion she used the office also as a place of contact for teaching and held classes there each week. Dedicating every day to the service of Bahá’u’lláh, she remained steadfast through many difficulties.
Her joy knew no bounds when, in March 1956, she was joined by Elizabeth and Harlan who also made their pilgrimage to the Holy Land before reaching South Africa. Alice and the first Tswana Bahá’í woman, Dorothy Senna, had laid a foundation, in Lady Selbourne, for the formation of the first all-African
Local Spiritual Assembly in the Pretoria area and in April 1956, following the expressed wish of the Guardian, the Obers brought the institution into being. Aided by Alice they also raised up a Spiritual Assembly in Atteridgeville in 1958.
The twin doctors were greatly loved by their patients. Their practice grew.
Functioning as a team with Harlan in their Bahá’í work they taught at every opportunity and conducted study classes twice weekly. Harlan’s stories of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá welded together the hearts of pioneers and local believers and difficulties often melted into joy and laughter. Alice, Elizabeth and Harlan will long be lovingly remembered for their vital service of deepening the knowledge of the friends in the Pretoria area, many of whom are today serving the Faith with exemplary capacity and devotion.
The pinnacle of Alice’s life was the six years she served Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum as physician and companion from 1958 to 1964. Amatu’l-Bahá’s own words, cabled at the time of Alice’s passing, best describe this achievement:
. . . DOCTOR ALICE KIDDER OUTSTANDING OLD BELIEVER CONSECRATED DEVOTED PIONEER BOTH SOUTH AFRICA MEXICO . . . PRECIOUS LINK MY OWN LIFE AGONIZING PERIOD FOLLOWING PASSING BELOVED GUARDIAN WHEN FOR SIX YEARS SHE LIVED WITH ME CARED FOR ME SERVED AT WORLD CENTRE FAITH WITH UNIQUE SELFLESS DEVOTION . . .
During Alice’s six-year absence, Elizabeth maintained the medical practice alone, and she and Harlan continued their Bahá’í work, including teaching trips to Mozambique, Swaziland, Zululand, Basutoland and Rhodesia. They served on the National Teaching Committee of South and West Africa for some years. On 20 July 1962 Harlan died. Urged to do so by Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum, Alice returned to South Africa in 1964. Ever since Harlan’s death Rúḥíyyih Khánum had felt it was not right to separate the twins and that Elizabeth needed her more than she did. The sisters remained another five years in South Africa, continuing their practice together.
Elizabeth went to the United States in 1967
and spent four dusty months carefully sorting through and distributing to the International, American and Canadian Bahá’í archives an enormous collection of historical and other papers dating back to 1905 which had belonged to Harlan, and to Grace and Ella Robarts. While there, Elizabeth traversed the country from coast to coast and gave twenty-five well-received Bahá’í talks.
In 1969 Alice and Elizabeth made their farewell teaching trip to Cape Town, an unforgettable feast of love among their Bahá’í friends of all races. Returning to the United States, they settled in St. Petersburg, Florida. They longed to pioneer again, but were plagued by incredible mishaps. Both sisters were constitutionally prone to breaking their bones. Each suffered a severe hip fracture. Alice never really walked again. With heroic determination and fortitude, still imbued with their passionate desire to pioneer and not merely to rust out and die in their homeland, Elizabeth arranged their final move, this time to their pioneer post in Guadalajara, Mexico, where they arrived, Elizabeth in May 1975, Alice the following month. At Riḍván 1978 they were elected to the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Zapopan, Elizabeth serving as chairman.
Despite difficulties arising from not speaking Spanish, Elizabeth participated in brief teaching trips in Jalisco and Nayarit, and she and Alice both made valiant efforts to deepen the friends, their home a centre of Bahá’í activity, frequent firesides, their Bahá’í library available to all who came to study there.
The twins were taken to hospital following a car accident in November 1978 and shortly thereafter it became evident that they could not return to their home. After a lifetime of serving others, they were now surrounded by what seemed to be a band of angels who attended to their every need. Foremost among these were the Sala family, Emerie, Rosemary, Ida and Paul, who, respectively and collectively, looked after their financial affairs, their correspondence and voluminous historical papers, the disposal of their possessions, their daily needs; and Jack Jacobs, a gifted Bahá’í medical student whose visits each day brought laughter and assurance of the best medical attention, and somehow, sometimes, a favourite treat: chocolate ice cream. All who
were privileged to be near the sisters in their final months were touched by their detachment from worldly things, their courage, steadfastness and humour in the face of overwhelming difficulties and suffering.
In March 1981, when she was in Mexico during a tour of Central America, Rúḥíyyih Khánum made a special trip to Guadalajara to see Alice in her nursing home and stayed long enough to visit her on three different occasions. This brought great joy to both of them, Alice brightening up to very much her old self and, with child-like pleasure, eating the ice cream brought as a gift.
Elizabeth left this world on 1 June 1979, and Alice followed her on 26 November 1981. The following excerpts from cables sent by the Universal House of Justice and by Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum upon the passing of Elizabeth and of Alice point to some of their sterling qualities and unforgettable services to the Cause of God:
From the Universal House of Justice on 5 June 1979:
GRIEVED PASSING ELIZABETH OBER HER SERVICE PIONEER FIELDS WARMLY REMEMBERED . . .
From Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum:
. . . HEROIC PIONEER ELIZABETH OBER SHE ALICE SHINING EXAMPLES FUTURE GENERATIONS COMPLETE DEDICATION CAUSE GOD.
And from the Universal House of Justice on 29 November 1981:
. . . RADIANT HANDMAID BAHAULLAH ALICE KIDDER. HER SARIFICIAL EFFORTS FOREIGN PIONEERING FIELDS HER DEVOTED LABOURS WORLD CENTRE ABOVE ALL HER PERSONAL SERVICES AMATULBAHA DURING POIGNANT PERIOD AFTER BELOVED GUARDIANS PASSING LOVINGLY TENDERLY REMEMBERED . . .
The twins’ remains are buried together in the Cemeterio Municipal de Guadalajara, and their radiant souls are surely soaring upwards together through all the worlds of God.