Bahá’í World/Volume 20/Juanita Marie Storch
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JUANITA MARIE STORCH
1895—1987
Juanita Marie Storch was born in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay area of California on 23 May 1895 to a German mother, Johanna M. Storch (nee Thee), and an Austrian father who was born in Mexico, Hugo W. Storch. She was especially blessed at an early age to hear about and embrace the Bahá’í Message, and to be accorded the bounty of meeting ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during his memorable visit to the West Coast of North America.
Fragile in appearance and gentle in manner, she lived, during her teenage years, in Fruitvale, California. The Faith had been established in San Francisco, across the bay, by such pioneers as Helen Goodall and her
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daughter, Ella G. Cooper. Travel between San Francisco and Oakland by the friends was frequent. Her parents began going to Bahá’í gatherings in 1911 at the home of Mrs. Goodall, where Lua Getsinger and Thornton Chase would speak from time to time.
In 1912, the Bahá’ís began to anticipate the coming of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to California. Juanita wrote of this in her diary, and in letters to friends who often came to see her, in particular to ask for her remembrances of that historic occasion. In one such recollection she wrote:
When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá came to the Bay region in October 1912, the first time 1 saw Him was Thursday afternoon, Oct 3, 1912, at Mrs. Helen Goodall’s home on Jackson St., Oakland.
The Friends had been looking forward to this Visit for several months. The ones who had been to the Convention in Chicago told us about Him. Visiting Friends also gave reports. Mrs. Goodall arranged a showing of the moving pictures taken in Connecticut, in her large attic room.
Then we heard that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was very tired and would not journey to California. At that time with my parents I was a member of the “Fruitvale Assembly of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá”. We wrote Him a letter and He replied with a Tablet to the Fruitvale Assembly and ever since the phrase ‘Firmness in the Covenant’ has remained in my memory.
Being seventeen at the time and living in a two-storey redwood house at the top of Lynde Street hill, we were two blocks from the Matteson’s home, where most of our Bahá’í meetings and Feasts were held excepting when we went to Mrs. Goodall’s house. Not many people had automobiles in those days. It was so eaSy to walk the two blocks to Matteson’s on Sunset Street. To go to Mrs. Goodall’s we walked down Lynde Street hill to where the end of the line of a street car at East
27th Street and Fruitvale Ave. came and stopped awhile. For five cents we rode on it to Jackson Street. At Mrs. Goodall’s, my mother and father heard Thornton Chase speak at their first Bahá’í meeting. Some time later, dear Thornton Chase came to the Fruitvale Assembly as did Lua Getsinger and other early teachers and travelers so we were very blessed.
Naturally the Friends wished they could go to the train to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, but Mrs. Goodall and Mrs. Cooper advised against it so we had to wait until we heard that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had arrived the evening before. and would be at Mrs. Goodall’s in the afternoon to meet us all.
The rooms were filled and I had to sit on the floor with a few other young folks. From there I could see out of the drawing room across the hall, to the stairway where ‘Abdu’l-Bahá came down. First we heard His voice, then He came down with four Persians and Mrs. Getsinger, light from the colored glass window on His head and shoulders.
When He appeared in the doorway we all arose and He said ‘Allah’u’Abhá’ several times. We answered and He walked to His seat and with a motion of His hand He bade us be seated. Somehow it all seemed so natural and as if we had always seen Him.
My father had enrolled me at the California School of Arts and Crafts in Berkeley and I was hoping to study...to help him in the future as he was a talented designer who had studied architecture, but it was not to be. My studies did make me observe people, and I could not help but notice all the details of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s build and the beautiful way He used His hands. He never pointed at us. He used His hands more like a cup, offering us His bounty. At the end of His talk He arose and quickly walked through the pressing group of friends, taking some hands as He went. He took my hand as He was passing and looked into my eyes. It
IN MEMORIAM 865
was only a second but it seemed ten minutes. He still had my hand as He passed, and soon He was through the crowd, His voice Vibrating through the room as He spoke... He kissed the babies and went out.
Many of the friends were exhilarated and all were talking to each other, so to escape the confusion I went into the hall where it was quiet and peeked into the dining room as a few voices were coming from there. What a picture I saw! There was ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sitting in a big easy chair by the window. Little children were sitting on His lap and at His feet. He spoke to the children in English.
Mrs. Cooper told me once that her mother begged her father not to have the Vines trimmed that hung over the outside of the window. So now it made a beautiful diffused light as a backdrop for this scene.
There was only one time I was able to attend a public meeting and that was at the First Congregational Church in Oakland. Other times were at Mrs. Goodall’s on the long day of Oct 12th and twice at ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s house in San Francisco. To get there we had to walk down Lynde Street hill and get the street car going down Fruitvale Ave. to the train station at Fruitvale Station then ride the train to the ferry to cross the bay and then at the Ferry Building take another street car to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s house. This was supposed to be too much for a seventeen year old school girl at night. The first time I was at ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s house was with my parents. My father wanted to ask Him questions about the promised temple and the future of temples, etc. People always wanted to ask ‘Abdu’l-Bahá questions. The halls were always full of people waiting for interviews.
As we walked down the hall to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s room upstairs, He came to the door and took my hand and said these words: ‘In Persia it is not the custom to kiss the young ladies. You are My
Juanita Marze Starch
daughter, I am very fond of thee. Rest assured in Me.’
In later years in time of trials those words came unbidden to me ‘—Rest assured in Me.’
Once my father went alone to see ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. He embraced my father and said in the future to pattern his life on the stars.
As most of my memories are so personal and not of historical data, I shall tell of two other episodes that left an imprint on the seventeen year old. One was being up in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s room at Mrs. Goodall’s. Everyone wanted that opportunityto have an interview with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and I had no such wish. In fact I did not know what I would ask. Mirza Mahmood who was always around and talking to us all, insisted I go. He arranged it and beckoned me to come up the stairs. Mrs. Getsinger was standing at ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s doorway. Dr. Fareed was inside and had taken Katheryn Holsti’s hand and taken her with me. She had an eye affliction. Her father was bedridden and my,
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father Visited him and helped him become a Bahá’í. I pushed Katheryn ahead of me as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá came to His doorway and said in a low voice, “This is my sister”. So ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave a discourse on being sisters. Then all of a sudden I could not see Him. There was just a brilliant warm light. I was not afraid. It was something I could not write about or tell for some time afterwards. Later, downstairs, Katheryn said she was disappointed. She expected a miracle for her eyes. I was the one who experienced the miracle!
When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave an afternoon farewell talk at His home in San Francisco I spoke of the spiritual fragrance like, musk and the last atmosphere of His talk was so beautiful and touching, He walked by all of us and taking hands usually the way He did, but not as He came to me; He did not look at me and walked right by me. As He turned to look at all of us, as He stood at the bottom of the outside stairs, He looked just like that photograph of Him taken in Paris—very serious and penetrating. Usually He looked like the smiling photo of Him(seli) in Chicago.
For some time I felt, maybe I had done something to displease Him and then the inner happiness camewHe did not say goodbye to me!
In 1915, the family moved to Rincon Valley, near Santa Rosa, 60 miles north of Oakland. There, too, their home was outside the bustle of city noise and traffic, where Juanita daily fed wild deer and birds from her hands. She lived in this valley from 1915 until it became necessary for her to move into a convalescent home, in Santa Rosa, just before her passing.
Juanita was elected to the Santa Rosa Spiritual Assembly year after year, serving on committees and attending the many meetings at the Geyserville home of John and Louise Bosch 30 miles north of Rincon
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Valley. The Bosch home and acreage, nestled between two mountain ranges, was eventually deeded to the National Spiritual Assembly to become known around the Bahá’í world as the Geyserville Bahá’í School. Among the notable traditional gatherings she particularly loved to attend at the School was the‘annual Unity Feast. She also helped arrange and attended many summer outings of the Bahá’ís of San Francisco, Oakland, and other communities at Griffith’s Grove, a wooded area not far from GeyserVille, owned by a Bahá’í.
Educated at the California School of Arts and Crafts, she was known locally as a fine painter. The Sonoma County Museum in Santa Rosa held an exhibit of her paintings posthumously in 1990. Her passing was memorialized by Gaye LeBaron, a columnist for the major Santa Rosa newspaper, extolling her 70 years’ work with the Camp Fire Girls organization from her let birthday until the frailty of age intervened.
She was married on 28 April 1920 in New York City to Ahmad Sohrab, whom she met as a result of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Visit to Oakland. She lost her United States citizenship thereby because in those times U.S. statutes decreed that an American must give up US. citizenship to marry a foreigner. She gave birth to a daughter, Laila, who eventually settled in the Seattle, Washington, community. However, her marriage lasted less than two years, and many years’ efforts to regain US. citizenship were finally rewarded in the 19403, when she reclaimed her maiden name.
A dear friend reminiscing about Juanita’s later years said of her: “She always disliked our celebrating her birthday because it was a Bahá’í Holy Day and she didn’t want to distract from the usual festivities that day... She was a source of inspiration, knowledge, and comfort to the Friends, a shining example to (everyone).”
She died 26 January 1987 and was buried in Santa Rosa Memorial Park near her father.
IN MEMORIAM
Juanita wrote many poems during her life. This is but one of them:
0 Day of Love!
0 Day ofLovez’ I sit and dream Ofthee! A day apart from other days, yet in thee do I find them all; For thou art all eternity!
0 Day Divine! T hou art the universe! Into the heights Ofthy starry dome, and deep beneath the depths of thy tossingfoam do I feel my soul immerse!
O Dazzling Day! Like unto the sun thou art! But lest thy brilliance blind mine eyes, I find a misty smoke of incense rise; The peace-veil from thy heart!
0 Beauteous Day! T hou art an angel form! Pure, happy and perfect, abideth thou, in the garden ofdelight; T 0 forever and ever and ever roam!
0 Day ofLove! T hou art a prayer! I hear thee issue from the sacred chambers of Baha, as music sweetly chanted; Ah, my life is there!
WALDO T. BOYD