Thereupon, he asked if there was a daughter of one of his European disciples who could come and help with the household chores at Villa Caldana.
Hedi Mertens was cabled in Zurich, but since her own daughter Annakatharina was not used to housekeeping, she turned instead to their family friend, 20-year-old Irene Ruth Billo. Irene was interested in Baba through the influence of her parents, who had met Baba. She accepted Hedi's offer and left soon after, arriving in Cannes at 5:00 A.M. on the 15th. Irene recalled the sequence of events that led to her first meeting with Meher Baba:
I remember it was one afternoon in 1936 that I sneaked into my father's office and opened his secret cupboard to steal chocolates and saw for the first time a photograph of Baba taken at Feldmeilen [the Mertenses' house]. It was a beautiful picture and had a profound effect on me. I asked my mother about Baba and she gave me the booklet, Questions and Answers , but I was not intellectually interested in spiritual things.
During the Nasik period, Norina would write to my father and I also began attending meetings in Zurich, though I had not gone to meet Baba when he came in November 1936, as I felt shy. I felt Baba would be able to see all my secrets.
When I arrived at Cannes, Elizabeth picked me up at the station. As soon as I arrived at the villa she brought me before Baba. Somehow I felt that I had come back, I had come home. It was something so great which I had never experienced before or since.
The next evening Baba told me to sit next to him on one side; Mehera was on the other side. It was very stirring to be with Baba all the time. Meeting Baba was an upheaval which turned me upside down. His was a love much greater than anything else I had ever experienced.
Irene would meticulously clean Baba's room and keep things tidy. She also cleaned a small adjoining room where Kaka would sit while on night duty.1 In the course of her cleaning duties, Irene would collect Baba's hair from his pillows and carefully preserve it.
An amusing story involves Irene's trying to be so careful in saving Baba's hair. At times, Kaka would take a pillow from the bed and keep it behind his head while sitting on the chair during nightwatch.
Footnotes
- 1.From the beginning a disciple would be on watch by Meher Baba's side at night, and no one was allowed to enter Baba's room unless called.