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ROXANNE TERREL
1943—1992
DEEPLY MOURN PASSING DEVOTED SELF~SACRIFICING MAIDSERVANT BAHA’U'LLAH ROXANNE TERREL. HER FAITHFUL UNWAVERING SERVICES FAITH GOD, HER JOYFUL RADIANT SPIRIT WILL CONTINUE TO BE SOURCE INSPIRATION TO ALI. WHO KNEW HER. HER MERITORIOUS EFFORTS IN IGNITING
Roxanne 72W?!
FIRE LOVE OF GOD IN RECEPTIVE HEARTS AMONG THE CHINESE \VILL ALWAYS BE REMEMBERED. PRAYING PROGRESS HER LUMINOUS SOUL ALL WORLDS GOD. KINDLY CONVEY OUR LOVING SYMPATHY MEMBERS HER DEAR FAMILY AND HER FRIENDS.
Universal House of Justice November 17, 1992
oxanne Terrel was born Roseanne
Hoyman on December 23, 1943. Baptized a Catholic her family lived in the small town of Massillon, Ohio, in the Midwest of the United States. She had a “little brother” David, three years her junior, with whom she was very close.
What brought about the transition from “Roseanne” to “Roxanne” is uncertain, but it may reflect the need for drastic changes she felt she had to make in her life. David remembers that growing up she was doted on by an aunt who gave her gifts and seemed to be ever—present and protective. In spite of this Roxanne had a difficult childhood. Her father, an alcoholic, was abusive. Roxanne told me ofhow she was torn, how she wanted everyone to love each other; she remembered feeling love for everyone, for dogs and kittens, and yet how she found her home life unbearable. She left home as a young teenager and moved to California. Later a priest helped her mother and brother to leave the situation in Massillon as well.
In the early 19705 Roxanne found the Bahá’í Faith while married and living in Arizona. A young couple, friends of Roxanne and her husband, were attending weekly fitesides. It was not long before Roxanne saw that exposure to the Faith was transforming the couple. The story goes that Roxanne and her husband felt left out. “Why won’t you invite us to your Bahá’í
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IN MEMORIAM 1992—1 997 29
meetings? Aren’t we intellectual enough?” she asked her friend. Roxanne and her husband attended the next fireside and on that occasion accepted the Faith. Roxanne was on fire with her new direction in life. She and the other new Bahá’ís seized every opportunity to make teaching trips to American Indian reservations in Arizona and Nevada. One of the friends who knew Roxanne then said of her:
Roxanne was a pusher in the Faith and a great promoter. She would organize teaching programs, firesides and deepenings without having to be asked to do any Ofthese things. She once organized a Youth Conference in Las Vegas that five hundred youth attended. This was in 1971 or 1972. She would ask anyone and everyone to help her, whether they were Bahá’ís or not. She was very good at getting people to serve the Faith. Her only desire was to serve Baha’u’llah. She understood the Faith and could quote the Writings by memory, from the books, even to the page number and paragraph. She read the Holy Writings daily and could memorize with no trouble. She was always the first to volunteer for any program.
Roxanne then heard her first pioneer call and arose to go to Taiwan. Making her home there for Close to ten years, she made traveling teaching trips to islands in the Pacific.
In 1984 she accepted a special assignment, traveling throughout the world to focus the attention of the friends on the importance of raising up teachers for the people of China. The goal was given to Taiwan, and the friends there deputized Roxanne to go.
Roxanne had a very deep love for the people of China; she had an innate understanding that the ultimate victory of
the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh could never be reached without the people of the country of the future. For nearly four years the world was her home. Her travels took her to Australia, Peru, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Germany, and the South Pacific. She set no limits on her travel time; she had no deadlines. No longer married, she gave her life to the friends. When she arrived in a country, she would stay as long as she felt she could be ofservice. Nothing stood in her way of making personal heartto—heart connections, especially with those who were in need. "the goals and plans of the institutions were her highest priority, but she always had time to listen to the Friends and to share with them her loving heart.
Roxanne did not make “presentations” of the Bahá’í Faith. She was an intellectual who made little show of her intellect, and she was a powerful speaker. When she spoke of the martyrs of Iran at a youth conference in Manchester, England, her stories galvanized the crowd. She told the story of Jinous Mahmoudiw and of the challenges the young professional confronted in the last years ofher life; the youth were spellbound. Then Roxanne asked them, “Where will you be in five years?” Without another word she left the podium. Many of those youth are now serving as pioneers in Africa, Mongolia, and Asia.
It was in 1987 that the Universal House ofjustice asked Roxanne to settle in Hong Kong. She served the Faith there and in Macau with frequent and extended trips to China until her untimely death.
After making her pilgrimage in the summer of 1992, she stopped in England and Northern Ireland. In London her cancer was diagnosed. Her longing at the
19 See “In Memoriam," Zhinus Ni’mat Mahmudi, The Baku? \«Y/arld, vol. XVIII, pp. 781—84.
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30 THE BAHA’I’ WORLD
end of her life was to return to Macau and to China. Her happiness came from teaching the Cause of God, and her love for the people of China was unequalled and unabated.
During her last days I was asked to speak at a fireside in London. Roxanne insisted that I go. She said, “When you are teaching, I am teaching.” Then she told me about a talk she had given to a group of prominent people at a ceremonial occasion. She said that she spoke about hope, and at the end of the talk several people were in tears. Then she advised me, “Remember, no talk on the Bahá’í Faith, no presentation, no matter how well prepared, is of any value unless it moves the heart ofat least one person in the gathering, even to tears.”
Roxanne died on November 17, 1992. At the time of her death, she was an Auxiliary Board member for Protection in Macau and Hong Kong, Secretary General of the Administrative Board of the Badi Foundation, and an administrator in the office ofone of the Continental Counsellors in Asia.
She told me she could not return to Asia until she was well. From the Unseen Realms she has returned. Her direct energy continues to be felt wherever a friend opens his heart to Baha’u’llah. She was buried in Canford Cemetery, Bristol, England, under a huge shade tree. Interred with her, next to her heart, was a Tablet of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s, written as a scroll in Chinese calligraphy by one of the friends in Hong Kong.
Roxanne lived with the words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’: “Where there is love, nothing is too much trouble, and there is always time.”20 It was not a surprise to me to find
20 “Nothing is too much trouble when one loves,” He had been heard to say, “and there is always time.” Howard Colby Ives, Portal: ta Freedom, p. 51.
the quotation pasted in her wallet after
her death. jene Bellow:
