Baba had not given up hope of finding the "ideal boy," even in America. Brought by his parents, a twelve-year-old boy named Jimmy S. Barstow, Jr. was introduced to Baba at the Stokeses' house. Unexpectedly, Baba liked the American boy very much, and later expressed his wish that Jimmy stay with him for two weeks. It was not possible due to the child's schooling, but the boy did come to visit Baba again at Harmon on the 19th, and for a third time at the Stokeses' on the day Baba departed.
The passport and visa work was done on the 16th. Mary Antin had a private interview with Baba on the morning of the 17th, during which she poured out her feelings of love and offered her services as a writer in Baba's cause. Baba was pleased with her dedication and service and accepted a copy of her book Promised Land.1 In a letter to Alice Green (dated 24 November 1931), Mary wrote:
... Baba's face when I made my supreme confession to him was burned into my heart for eternity. And there was an evening when we were all with Baba, in silence more holy than ever was the silence of an empty cathedral; and what I saw that evening revealed to me the origin of the familiar motifs of much of Christian sacred art. Of that evening I have not spoken, except in shy allusion, even to those who shared in it.
... Were ever bonds so closely knit in so short a time as these bonds that hold us together who have shared the brief first week of Baba's presence, the communion of those holy hours in his presence? Nearer, dearer than sisters and brothers of the flesh ... The brotherhood of Baba's Own.
Norina was one of the founders of the International Theatre Arts Institute in Brooklyn, where she taught acting.2 Two of her pupils, Eileen Burns, seventeen, and Beatrice Graham met Baba on the 17th morning. Eileen was a shy, timid girl, but Baba appreciated her sincerity and the depth of her feelings for him. She sat facing Baba without saying a word for some minutes, a few tears streaming down her face, which Baba wiped.
She looked into Baba's eyes and he asked her what she saw there. "The Great Wisdom Beyond," she replied.
"How do you feel?"
Footnotes
- 1.The Promised Land is an autobiographical account of a young Russian immigrant's journey to America.
- 2.One of Norina's early pupils was Louise Nevelson, who would become one of the most renowned artists of the 20th century.