found
ample compensation for the bereavements she had suffered, the desertions
she had witnessed, the ingratitude she had been shown by friends and
kindreds. No one could ever dream that a woman of her age, so frail in
body, so sensitive of heart, so loaded with the cares of almost eighty
years of incessant tribulation, could so long survive so shattering a
blow. And yet history, no less than the annals of our immortal Faith,
shall record for her a share in the advancement and consolidation of the
world-wide community which the hand of 'Abdu'l-Baha had helped to fashion,
which no one among the remnants of His Family can rival.

Which of the blessings am I to recount, which in her unfailing solicitude
she showered upon me, in the most critical and agitated hours of my life?
To me, standing in so dire a need of the vitalizing grace of God, she was
the living symbol of many an attribute I had learned to admire in
'Abdu'l-Baha. She was to me a continual reminder of His inspiring
personality, of His calm resignation, of His munificence and magnanimity.
To me she was an incarnation of His winsome graciousness, of His
all-encompassing tenderness and love.

It would take me too long to make even a brief allusion to those incidents
of her life, each of which eloquently proclaims her as a daughter, worthy
to inherit that priceless heritage bequeathed to her by Baha'u'llah. A
purity of life that reflected itself in even the minutest details of her
daily occupations and activities; a tenderness of heart that obliterated
every distinction of creed, class and color; a resignation and serenity
that evoked to the mind the calm and heroic fortitude of the Bab; a
natural fondness of flowers and children that was so characteristic of
Baha'u'llah; an unaffected simplicity of manners; an extreme sociability
which made her accessible to all; a generosity, a love, at once
disinterested and indiscriminating, that reflected so clearly the
attributes of 'Abdu'l-Baha's character; a sweetness of temper; a
cheerfulness that no amount of sorrow could becloud; a quiet and
unassuming disposition that served to enhance a thousandfold the prestige
of her exalted rank; a forgiving nature that instantly disarmed the most
unyielding enemy--these rank among the outstanding attributes of a saintly
life which history will acknowledge as having been endowed with a
celestial potency that few of the heroes of the past possessed.

No wonder that in Tablets, whi