Stepping into their home I was met with incense burning, low lighting, soft music playing and a warm but solemn environment. We hugged and wept and sat and talked and just listened to their grief, and the moments of joy.
The most beautiful story was told. Mum and I came in with an arrangement of roses and the first thing our friend said looking at me with eyes of joy, 'Baha'u'llah! Roses! He loved roses didn't He!' and as the night unfolded she told us how last night, at 3am, in utter desperation and sadness she went for a walk with her dog outside her compound, and with tears streaming down her face and in utter desperation she begged her baby daughter for a sign that she was there, that she was ok after her passing. It was dark, she had no idea where her dog was taking her, and all of a sudden she looks and the dog has stopped in front of a rose bush, and as it is in the heart of winter in Shanghai the fifty or so buds were all tightly closed, but as she looked to the center of this large plant she saw the most beautiful, fully bloomed, vibrant red rose, standing tall high above the rest. She knew that was it, that was the sign she had been praying for, a gift from Baha'u'llah and from her baby, letting her know she is ok and at peace. She can even see this brilliant, single, red rose from her 9th floor apartment.
I was given some rose petals from the Shrine of Baha'u'llah by the Custodians when I was in Haifa in November. I had given them out to Baha'i friends here, and last night my dear friend told me she will place these petals in the silk she will wrap her baby in.
Mum opened a page in Dorothy Baker's biography 'From Copper to Gold' and happened to open it onto this quote, which we shared with my friend's last night,
"Be happy, Be happy! If you knew the joy of a little child or of any soul who goes out in light, you would not have the will-power to remain here for twenty-four hours." - Abdul-Baha
2 comments:
Such a lovely post.
This almost brought me to tears, so moving.
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