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The Artist’s Daughter, Nancy Douglas Bowditch, p256-7
Dear Bahá’í Sisters,
I am directed by the Guardian to acknowledge on his behalf and on the behalf of the members of the Holy Family, the receipt of your kind letter of condolence and sympathy, dated July 17th 1932, and to extend to you all the expression of the heartfelt appreciation and thanks.
Your touching words in connection with the sudden removal of the Greatest Holy Leaf from their midst have greatly alleviated the burden of sorrow that weighs so heavily upon their hearts, and have demonstrated that in their great and irreparable loss, the Friends are faithfully sharing their sorrow and grief.
The passing of the Greatest Holy Leaf, so tragic in its suddenness, has, indeed, divested the Holy Family from its unique adornment and the Bahá’í world at large from one of its noblest and most precious members. She was to us all not only a true friend, but the real embodiment of those traits and characteristics of that genuine and profound love that are born of God, and that we had learned to admire in the Master. Her life at once so eventful and so glorious, is so closely interwoven with the history of the Faith itself, that I will not attempt to describe. Suffice it to say that the share she has had in shaping some of the chief events in the annals of the Faith, though yet in the main unrecorded and unknown, will be one day revealed and its significance will be deeply realized.
In this great loss that the followers of the Faith both in East and West have come to suffer, our Guardian’s share is the greatest and perhaps the most cruel. His sole comfort in this calamity, is to see the Friends united by working for the spread of the Cause for which our departed Kha’num had given up all of her life, and for the triumph of which she cherished the highest hopes.
The expressions of highest zealous enthusiasm and hope, of genuine self-abnegation and love that the American believers and especially our precious sister Mrs. Agnes Parsons demonstrated in their last Convention meeting have greatly brightened the closing days of her life.
Shoghi Effendi trusts that her memory will increasingly serve to cheer and hearten the Friends in their ever widening activities.
—Yours in His service,
H. Rabbani.
1932-08-15 to Nancy Bowditch re passing of Greatest Holy Leaf
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