In Memoriam 1992-1997/Mary Zabolotny McCulloch

MARY ZABOLOTNY MCCULLOCH

Knight of Bahá’u’lláh 1918—1996

GRIEVED LEARN PASSING MARY ZABOLOTNY MCCULLOCH WHOSE WHOLEHEARTED RESPONSE GUARDIAN’S APPEAL NEEDS TEN YEAR PLAN WON HER IMMOR' TAL DISTINCTION KNIGHT BAHA’U’LLAH FOR ANTICOSTI ISLAND. HER GREAT LOVE FOR CAUSE, UNQUENCHABLE SPIRIT OF TEACHING AND UNFAILING CHEERFULNESS UNDER TESTS MAKE HER LIFE EXAMPLE FUTURE GENERATIONS CANADIAN BELIEVERS. ASSURE HEARTFELT PRAYERS PROGRESS HER ILLUMINED SOUL. KINDLY CONVEY DEEPEST SYMPATHY HER HUSBAND KENNETH AND DAUGHTER LAURA. ADVISE HOLD APPROPRIATE MEMORIAL GATHERINGS TORONTO, WINNIPEG.

Universal House ofjustice January 9, 1996

I do not recall exactly when my dream happened. Many years ago I had dreamt about the feast spread in our home, and the King and Queen and many guests

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Mary Zabolnmy MtCullac/7

visiting us. I remember well the table bountifully spread with good food, and the bejewelled wraps of the guests. The Queen beckoned to me, and asked me to fetch her wrap from the closet. In the closet were many garments, studded with jewels. Some of the furs were colored, in purple, etc. There was a crimson evening gown hanging upsidedown. I wondered at this, and thought, “Is this mine?” Many years later, after becoming a Bahá’í, I had read the Tablet of Ahmad (which opens with the words “He is the King, the AllKnowing, the Wise! Lo, the Nightingale of Paradise . . . ”) one evening, and some of the truth of the dream dawned upon me. “He is the King” meant God and a new Revelation; “the Nightingale” was Bahá’u’lláh.

uch is the seed of a Bahá’í life described

by Mary McCulloch in To Dzfiase the Fragrances, the memoir she and her husband Kenneth wrote.

THE BAHA’I’ WORLD

Mary was born on November 9, 1918, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her parents, Michael and Theodora [Olinyk] Zabolotny, were Ukrainian immigrants. Mary was their first child; a son, Vladimir (later named Walter), was born the following year. Of her early years she wrote:

Except for the occasional children’s squabble, we were a happy family, and if my father and mother had their arguments, I was always the peace—maker [as I] had developed a talent for settling their disputes. At a very early age I had also developed a talent for drawing. At the age of seven I joined the library, and gained a love of books. My parents taught us the love of art, music and poetry, and emphasized many a time the importance ofgetting a good education, ofwhich they had been deprived.

Mary’s education was completed in Winnipeg. After elementary and high school, she entered Wesley College (now the University of Winnipeg). For her second year she transferred to the University of Manitoba, and finally she went to the Winnipeg Art School. Mary wrote:

At that time LeMoine Fitzgerald was the Principal of the School, and a most understanding and wise teacher, whose students adored him. He had been a member of the “Group of Seven” artists, who had become famous for finding new ways of expressing Canadian art.

After she graduated she worked as a commercial artist, and she attended refresher courses at the Art School where she met fellow artist Frances Boyce. Over the years Mary and Frances made several trips to the Yukon and Alaska, paying their way by working at whatever jobs were available or by selling some of their paintings.

[Page 279]IN MEMORIAM 1992—1997

After these painting trips were finished, and I was back home in Winnipeg, I began to search for a way of life that would approach what my spirit craved, although at the time I did not know what that was.

Mary had her dream and . . .

[T]hen, in 1951, a friend from my Art School days, Leonard Woods, sent me a pamphlet on the Bahá’í Faith, saying he thought I would be interested. That was all he said, but after reading the Principles, and a little of the history of the Faith, it seemed to me that I had at last found the Truth, and was ready to support these Principles, but I needed to know more about them. Leonard had said that a friend would contact me . . . I waited three months and no one contacted me. Then Leonard came from Vancouver to Winnipeg on a holiday. He asked me ifI would like to attend a fireside at the home ofAngus Cowan,171 a Winnipeg Bahá’í businessman . . . That was to be a Friday night I would never forget, as this was my first contact with Bahá’ís. Young people met there every Friday to discuss various aspects of the Faith. Angus and Bobbie Cowan were very kind and hospitable, sharing much fun and laughter, and with radiant hearts [they made] everyone feel that they were wanted and respected. Many speakers came to that house to talk about some aspect of the Faith, including Glen Eyford and Jamie Bond, both of whom later served on the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada.

'7' See “In Memoriam,’1 7779 Ba/Jzi’z' W/orld, vol. XIX, pp. 703—06.

7-79

On the Anniversary of the Birth of the Báb, October 20, 1951, Mary declared her belief in Bahá’u’lláh. Soon after her declaration she pioneered to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, helping to establish the first Local Assembly there. She later arose to help form Assemblies in the Quebec communities OfVerdun, St. Lambert, and Westmount. When the Ten Year Crusade was launched, she again offered to pioneer, and the New Territories Committee asked her to go to Anticosti Island, a goal designated by the Guardian.

He [the Guardian] realizes that this is a very difficult assignment, but feels that the hand of Bahá’u’lláh will assist those who arise to carry on this work, and that the doors will open, somehow or other. He hopes your committee and the National Assembly will realize the great importance of someone being settled in Anticosti, and will continue

to press the matter.173

Anticosti was entirely owned by the Wayagamack Pulp and Paper Company, and residence on the island would necessitate employment with the enterprise. Mary moved to Anticosti in March of 1956 but was unable to keep her job and had to leave after a few months. For her efforts she earned the accolade of Knight of Baha’u’llah. She managed to visit the island on three occasions in later years.

Mary married Ken McCulloch in 1958, and they had one daughter, Laura. After the wedding Mary joined Ken in Baker Lake, Northwest Territories,'73 where he had been pioneering. There, they worked on ensuring

'72 Shoghi Effendi. Memtgex to Canada, letter written by Leroy loas on behalf of the Guardian to the New Territories Committee dated May 6, 1954, pp 197—98.

‘75 Presently Nunavut, officially separated from the Northwest Territories in 1999.

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the translation of Bahá’í literature into Inuktitut and on helping to establish Baker Lake Bahá’í House. They remained in the north until 1979.

After Baker Lake the McCullochs lived briefly in Churchill, Manitoba, and finally settled in The Pas, Manitoba, where an Assembly was formed at Rjdvén 1991.

In her later years Mary worked on translating 7776 Hidden W/om’s and the Eblet ofAbmad into Ukrainian. Some of her other translations have been published.

Mary was not well when she and her husband attended the Observances of the Centenary of the Ascension of Baha’u’llah in Israel in May 1992 and the Bahá’í World Congress in November of that year. Early in 1993 she had surgery for cancer but had recovered by the time she and Kenneth went on pilgrimage in November of that year. In April 1995 they returned to Baker Lake for a one—week visit. Then, in August, Mary had an accident and was hospitalized for nineteen days. She grew weaker; it appeared that the cancer had come back. On January 7, 1996, she passed away. A few weeks earlier she had told one of the home—care people attending her that she

had fulfilled her life’s objectives.

Adaptedfiom articles 5y Kenneth C. McCulloc/J and Susan M. Lyons