Tending the Garden/Appendix B

APPENDIX B

Memories or ‘Appu’L-BAHA AND OF SOME HANDS OF THE CAUSE OF Gop

Less than 20 years after ‘Abdu’'1-Baha came to North America, Rosemary became a Baha’i. She met many early believers, absorbed their stories and made notes. As the years went by she would be asked again and again to tell these stories.

Memortes oF ‘Aspu'L-BaHA - 1912 Anne Savage

In the Maxwell home, we can see a letter that Mrs. Maxwell wrote to Anne Savage, one of the earliest Bah@is of the city, about the momentous forthcoming visit to Montreal of ‘Abdu’l-Baha. We can imagine her joy as she wrote:

Now He is coming and will be here about the middle of next week, and I hope that nothing in this world will prevent your being here!

Rosemary would spend time with Anne, listening to her stories. Here are some of her experiences, “written down verbatim just as Anne told me, or as close as possible”

| saw the Master four times. The first three occasions were in the Kinneys’ beautiful home [in New York City]. The first time | went, the drawing rooms, the upper and lower halls, the stairway were crowded with people waiting for the Master to appear. When He came, every eye was as if imprisoned in His glance—I cannot describe Him.

The Master walked up and down the small space left free for Him by the large crowd. | sat on the floor near the door. As he walked, His cream colored aba would swing [Page 224]224 APPENDIX B

with His stride. | said to myself, filled with longing, “If only ‘Abdu’l-Baha would stand before me for just a moment so that | could touch the hem of His robe”. The Master walked towards me, still talking and stood for a moment directly in front of me... | don’t want to be reminded of my stupidity! | dreaded to make myself conspicuous by stretching out my hand!

On another occasion, the Master walked up to me in the room crowded with people, took my hand in His and spoke to me while tears ran down my face. May asked me eagerly, “What did He say?’—I had to reply “I did not know!” His kindness was overwhelming. | was not on earth.

At another time, the Master left the gathering to walk outside to a waiting carriage. We crowded to the door to see Him. | put my hand on Ahmad Sohrab’s arm and asked, “Oh, is He going away?” Ahmad followed the Master to the carriage. ‘Abdu’l-Baha sent him back with a bunch of violets to give to me and to tell me that the Master wished me to come to Him. The people made a pathway for me. | felt like a princess, but again | felt that | could not go before all those people. The Master asked Ahmad a question, and | saw Ahmad nod his head.

The third time | saw Him, He was seated in a bay window. When | went into the room, He beckoned to me to come to Him. | sat there beside Him, looking and looking at Him. He glanced at me with such a loving smile and said, ‘You do the easy things and leave the difficult things to God”. | thought He meant me to go, so | rose and left at once.

Every time | entejured His presence, He gave me flowers, beautiful yellow roses at one time. He always wore a deep fawn aba and a white, white turban.

The last time | saw ‘Abdu’l-Baha was at a large supper. Before the supper was served, He went around anointing each head with attar of rose from a small vial, though there were over a hundred people present. At our table were six or eight women: May, Juliet, Rhoda Nicholls, myself and others. When He came to me | turned and faced Him looking up into His face while He anointed my head. The bottle which held the attar of rose was just as full when He was finished as it was when He began.

On the train going home, | was overcome by my stupidity which prevented me from accepting all the bounties the Master had offered me. | prayed, and as | prayed His presence became so real to me, as real as any meeting.’

Grace Robarts

‘This story was sent to me by Rosemary at a time in my life when I was [Page 225]APPENDIX B 225

working as an over-qualified (so 1 thought) waitress. In the letter that went with this story, Rosemary wrote, “It is a good experience to be probed by the forces of life to learn to accept the real meaning of democracy, equality and that all work done in a spirit of service is as worship.”

Grace Robarts was a gifted artist, a graduate of Pratt Institute. Before she became a Baha'i, her foremost conviction and her greatest pride was her acceptance of the fact that honest labour makes the garbage collector one with the professor. When she met ‘Abdu'l-Baha as a young Baha'i she was an art teacher. The Master asked her to be His hostess, greeting His guests, arranging the affairs of the household while in New York. This service Grace was happy and well-qualified to give—a rare privilege. She would greet the guests that flocked to meet ‘Abdu’l-Baha, arrange for the meals he wished to serve, with the Persian Baha'i cook.

One evening as the Master and His guests prepared to leave to attend a meeting, Grace went upstairs to get her evening wrap. As she came downstairs, the Master said to her, “Grace, you will remain here tonight and do the work of the cook while the cook comes with us.’

Too stunned with shock to say anything, Grace stood immobile, unable to move for anger, until ‘Abdu’l-Baha and His guests had left. Furious, saying to herself over and over again, “How could the Master insult me sol’, she changed from her evening dress into something more appropriate, then came downstairs to attack her task. (In telling me this story, | remember the laughter in her voice as she said that scalding hot tears that poured down her cheeks were almost sufficient to wash the pile of greasy plates and pots and pans.) Driven by fury, her task at last completed, she went upstairs to her room and flung herself on her bed, consumed by the thought, “Why, oh why had “Abdu’l-Baha so deeply insulted me?”

All energy gone, she at last lay quiet. Suddenly, there came to her the warning words of a friend: “Remember the Master always tests one on what one thinks is one’s strongest virtue.” With this memory came her conviction in regards to honest labour. She said to herself, “What a fool | am! Why should the service of the cook be considered as degrading, worth less than my services?” With this thought, she prayed for humility, and the healing tears came effortlessly.

Suddenly, at this moment, there came a knock on the door. When she opened it, there stood one of the Master’s secretaries. ‘Abdu’l-Baha had sent him to escort her to the meeting.? [Page 226]226 APPENDIX B

Grace Robarts eventually taught her nephew about the Faith. His name was John Robarts, and he went on to serve on the first National Spiritual Assembly of Canada, to pioneer to Africa, and to be appointed a Hand of the Cause.

Millie Rena Gordon and Mrs. Guilaroff

Millie Rena Gordon was a professional comedienne, and would delight gatherings with her skits and stories. She was a friend of our family, and we adored her. Millie Rena Gordon became a Bahai in Montreal in the 1930s. ‘Tm no angel,’ Millie remarked to May Maxwell when she was contemplating making her declaration of belief. ‘If the Bahd’is expect me to be an angel they’ve got another think coming,’ ... Mrs. Maxwell said, with a smile, ‘I don’t think Rena you will sprout wings.’”*

Some years ago I was able to interview Millie and record some of her experiences. (In later years, she used the name Millie, but in the early days in Montreal, she was known as Rena). I take the liberty to include this story in which we encounter Millie’s good friend and neighbour, Vera Guilaroff Raginsky and Vera’s mother.

Vera had crossed the street from her house in Montreal to attend a fireside in the nearby home of Millie Rena Gordon. The hours passed swiftly and when it was time to leave, the friends milled about at the door, among them, Eddie Elliot, the first Black Baha'i of Canada. The friends were all gone, and Rena was picking up the cups and saucers, when the phone rang. It was Vera. “Oh Rena! My mother is so upset. She saw Eddie and is furious that | attended a mixed gathering. She is on her way to give you a piece of her mind!” Rena was devastated and did not know what to do. There was a loud knock at the door.

It was Mrs. Guillaroff, obviously in a foul mood. Before she could open her mouth, Rena invited her in to have a cup of tea, and dashed out to the kitchen before the angry mother could say a word. As she prepared the tea, she noticed that there was silence in the living room, and was surprised.

When she returned with the tea, there was Mrs. Guillaroff next to the fireplace mantle, gazing at a picture of ‘Abdu'l-Baha. “What a wonderful man!” she said. “I know [Page 227]APPENDIX B Dat

Him.” Rena was stunned. “How do you know Him?” she asked. Then Mrs. Guillaroff explained that she and her husband, when they were younger, would go to all types of public lectures in the city, anything that seemed of interest. So it was that they had heard ‘Abdu’l-Baha speak at the Unitarian Church, long ago in 1912, during His visit to Montreal. She had never forgotten Him.

Rena showed her a framed list of Baha’i principles [see Appendix A] and said, “This is what He was teaching, and these principles are what we discuss here during my fireside gatherings.’ Mrs. Guillaroff was enthralled; had her tea, and went home. Vera continued to attend Rena’s firesides, and became one of the early Baha'is of Montreal.°

Carrie Kinney

Emeric sometimes had to go to New York City on business and Rosemary would go along, meeting Bah@a’is and listening to their stories of ‘Abdu’l Baha.

Carrie (Kinney) went with ‘Abdu’l-Baha who wished to travel by subway on this occasion to visit a Baha’i friend. A group of nuns were waiting near them for the train. ‘Abdu’l-Baha noted them, then said to Carrie, “Go to them and tell them their Lord has appeared!” Long since had Carrie lost the inhibitions of her upbringing; obediently she approached the Mother Superior and gave her the message from the Master. The Mother Superior, bowed her head, inclining it towards the Master and replied, “Yes, | know it!”” “The Master then told Carrie that many in the convents and monasteries knew of and had inwardly accepted the Faith but the time was not yet ripe for them to leave.*®

STORIES OF SOME HANDs OF THE CauSE oF Gop

Hands of the Cause were a unique group of men and women appointed by Baha'u'llah, ‘Abdw’l-Baha and later by the Guardian to help protect and propagate the Faith. There were fifty Hands of the Cause in all, four named by Bahd’w lah, four by ‘Abdu’l-Baha and forty-two by Shoghi Effendi. In the 1950's, Shoghi Effendi appointed three contingents of Hands of the Cause.

Emeric and Rosemary had personal contact with several and in later years, [Page 228]228 APPENDIX B

Rosemary would often be asked to tell stories about them.

Fred Schopflocher

Mr. Schopflocher immigrated to Canada from Germany. Here, he built up a successful chemical business. His help with the building of the Bah@i House of Worship in Wilmette caused the Guardian to call him “The ‘Temple Builder”.

Now when you see a picture of Freddie Schopflocher before he became a Baha'i, you see the face of a man who was a hard-headed businessman. A mouth like a steel trap across his face. Hard, cold eyes... Then he married a young woman, very adventurous... she was always interested in esoteric movements. She joined one after the other. Freddie, being very impatient over this, but as a man in love, listened to her tolerantly as she told of Theosophy, of Christian Science etc. And then she heard of the Baha’i Faith. He said, “Laurel, haven't you learned yet that these people are just after your money?” But Laurel didn’t listen... While in Green Acre she had heard that the Source of All Knowledge was ‘Abdu'l-Baha and that He was in Haifa, so she said to Freddie, “Im going to see Him in Haifa.” Freddie decided that he was going to go too. So they went but he went protesting all the way. They arrived in Haifa just after ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s passing. The family was too prostrate to pay any attention to them, but courteously welcomed them.

Laurel was up in their bedroom one day shortly after their arrival looking into the garden when suddenly she saw her hard-headed, difficult-to-persuade husband weeping great sobs in the arms of Fujita, the Japanese gardener.

Then Freddie became this marvelous person who ended up a Hand of the Cause. His devotion to the Guardian was such that | don’t think | have ever seen it excelled anywhere. His whole life was pinpointed into that of service to the Guardian. ...

He was so generous. The Guardian called him the “Temple builder’?

Long afterwards, on another trip to Haifa, Mr. Schopflocher was told personally by the Guardian of his appointment as Hand of the Cause:

He happened to speak at the Ridvan Feast after he arrived home ... At the end of his talk he said, “And the Guardian ...’, and then he broke down weeping, and the tears were rolling down his cheeks. And that whole hall was filled with that unmistakable feel[Page 229]APPENDIX B 229

ing of the devotion of a Hand of the Cause. It was something indescribable. ...

You see, we were very privileged; it was a bounty to belong to that age when we saw these people as our co-workers and co-sharers, working together with them, and even saying, “Oh Freddie, you're talking nonsense!” Then suddenly to see the mantle of this station fall on the shoulders of these people, and having them express fully the essence of their devotion....”°

Mr. Schopflocher died not long after this appointment. He is buried on Mount Royal, very close to the grave of another Hand of the Cause, Sutherland Maxwell.

Dorothy Baker

A renowned and well-loved Baha'i from the United States was Dorothy Baker, appointed as a Hand of the Cause by Shoghi Effendi. Here are a

few of Rosemary’s recollections:

Dorothy Baker once asked me at Summer School to go with her up a hillside and we would say the Long Obligatory Prayer together, but each to himself. | knew it by heart but | was so caught up in Dorothy’s complete concentration | just stood - or sat - immovable and speechless. | was as yet not able to abandon myself (the Scot in me!) with another. As we walked down the hill together, she told me some of her thoughts regarding this prayer, that it is like the ocean from which we spring, symbolizing that ... Most Great Ocean of which Baha'u'llah speaks and in which all life is involved. That in the prayer, the soul ebbs and flows, advancing and retreating in its approach to God until at last it overcomes the consciousness of its own frailty and abandons itself to the mercy of God ... After saying it, | tell myself that anymore lingering on one’s own frailties is pure egotism ... that one’s powers must be turned to creative impulses, not negative even of oneself, that is not humility.”

| said once, “Dorothy, with all the adulation that surrounds you, how can you keep your balance? How can you keep so sincerely humble? Has anyone in particular helped you?” She thought for a moment and said, “Louis Gregory,’ and she told how she had been driving, and her car turned over. She wasn’t seriously injured. She was telling [Page 230]230 APPENDIX B

about it during an NSA meeting, and the others said, “Oh Dorothy, how dreadful! But of course nothing could happen to you. Baha'u'llah would certainly protect you.” But Louis just looked at her and said, “Were you driving too fast, Dorothy?” ...

Two months before Dorothy's death | had the following dream, which | didn’t understand. | dreamed that she was standing on a distant shore; very brilliant - wonderful - and | was standing on the earth’s shore. In between us was the ocean. Suddenly, the waves of the ocean turned into Arabic writing, and that became a bridge between us. It was very beautiful. | felt this wonderful smile of hers coming over those wonderful waves. ... [t took me a few months to understand it, that the connection is eternal through the words of Baha'u'llah. ”

In January, 1954, Dorothy was among the passengers of a plane that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea. No one survived.

Louis Gregory

Louis Gregory was one of the first African American Bah@is. The Guardian appointed him a Hand of the Cause and called him “noble-minded, golden-hearted”. Rosemary writes about visiting him and his wife Louise in

their home where she saw for the first time a photograph of the sister of “Abdu’lBaha.

| was given a photo of the Greatest Holy Leaf by Louis and Louise Gregory given to them by her. They had invited me to have lunch with them in their home in Portsmouth. | saw on the mantlepiece this photo in a brass oriental frame and burst into tears! These precious darlings - so little endowed with worldly goods, took it and put it into my hands. | was overcome and sat at the table with it before me. Someone robbed me of it - or perhaps having the same reaction as | did, couldn’t resist its appeal. But the thought of the immediate loving reaction of Louis is an imperishable bounty and brings tears so often to my eyes.”

Leroy Ioas

Appointed a Hand of the Cause in 1951, Leroy loas served for [Page 231]APPENDIX B 231

many years at the World Centre in Haifa.

Leroy loas came to consult with the Canadian National Spiritual Assembly in regard to our joint activities ... He started out so bravely saying, “The most embarrassing thing about meeting with you is this question of the Hands of the Cause.” His businesslike tone faltered a little, then he went on, “I’ve always thought of the Hands as saintly souls, appointed after their death, not stumbling, fumbling, ineficient—“. Here his voice broke entirely. He covered his eyes with his hand while tears ran down his cheeks. We all sat in silence, feeling that spirit of utter humility fill the room, and | think all of us had tears in our eyes ... Finally, Leroy wiped his face and glasses and continued, “When the cable came, | took to bed for two days - the shock was so great.”

Amelia Collins

Amelia Collins, known as Millie, was an American Bahai who served for years in Haifa as Shoghi Effendi’s secretary. She was appointed a Hand of the Cause in 1951. During a visit, she told Rosemary many stories.

Millie told us of the austerity in Haifa, the severe food rationing. There had been no heat all winter, no hot water. ... She told me how she longed for a cup of hot, strong coffee, but it was always so weak and lukewarm. ...

She told ... that never in her long years of service to the Cause had she ever had so little time to pray and meditate as in Haifa, serving the Guardian. She then said that through constant service, a drop, a brief moment of prayer becomes an ocean in its intensity!

The Guardian had given her ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s room in His house. ... Shoghi Effendi told her when she no longer needed the room, it would never again be occupied by another!"

John Robarts

Born in Toronto, Ontario, John learned of the Faith from his aunt, Grace Robarts Ober. He and his wife Audrey were close friends of Rosemary [Page 232]232 APPENDIX B

and Emeric, and had a deep influence on their lives.

John always was John, but of course with the station of the Hand, and his devotion, he had been raised to the purest essence and degree of what John was meant to be. But you got a glimmering of this in the very beginning.

| remember ... at some public meeting his sister came. | [asked] his sister, “Was John always like this? Was he always a catalyzer? Did he always bring people together?” ... She said yes, he was always like that, even as a young boy. | was very happy to have that explanation from a sister who knew him.

| know that as chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly, ... we were a very young, inexperienced NSA of Canada and we had very definite opinions at times. John would ... patiently go around to each one and occasionally would hurry it up, and try to make us state ourselves clearly and distinctly. And only at the end would he give his opinion. He would never interject or try to influence anybody. But | think his very presence helped to make us aware of what we were building in administration. He was a young Baha’i but wise.’

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