The Meher Center had not yet been officially opened, as Elizabeth had reserved this for Baba. During his stay, Baba declared the Center open on 9 May 1952 and from that day allowed some of his American lovers to come and meet him. Private and collective interviews were held in the Lagoon Cabin from eight o'clock in the morning. Ivy Duce and her daughter, Charmian, were among the first to meet him. With them was a particularly significant "large fish" from Australian waters named Bernard Francis Brabazon, 45.
Francis Brabazon had been attempting to meet Baba for several years. An artist, poet and writer, Francis was spiritually inclined and had studied metaphysical literature. He had become attracted to the Persian Sufis and had found out about Sufism and Meher Baba through the Australian Sufi leader Baron von Frankenberg. He had been sent by the Baron to San Francisco in September 1946 to accompany Murshida Rabia Martin to India to meet Meher Baba. But Rabia Martin fell seriously ill with cancer and could not travel to India prior to her death in 1947. Brabazon could not go alone and he remained in America until the next appointed Sufi Murshida, Ivy Duce, returned from meeting Baba in India, during January 1948. Upon Ivy's return she telephoned Francis in San Francisco and assured him that Meher Baba was indeed "the Qutub of all Sufis." Brabazon was directed to return to Australia, work hard, save his money and await Baba's call. Francis wrote a heart-filled letter to Baba that same year. In 1950, when von Frankenberg died, Francis was appointed head of the Australian Sufis by Ivy.
Francis became quite respected in Australia, and at one time sported a yellow robe and was referred to as a "Sheik." He himself was building a house in Sydney for Baba on Beacon Hill. In 1952, Francis traveled from Australia to New York for Meher Baba's darshan, but had to remain there for weeks when Baba's visit was postponed.
Ivy and Charmian were the first to see Baba at the Center at 8:00 A.M. on the 9th. Both were in tears when they met him. Ivy described those moments:
As soon as we arrived, the mandali took Charmian and me at once to see Baba ... We were unspeakably shocked at his appearance, for where we had four years before seen a man who was flushed with health, strong and vigorous, striding like a lion through the gardens, now we beheld him tanned, with some hair graying, thin and fragile, with his bare legs and feet looking bloodless. We burst into tears. He tried to brave us out of our reaction by smiling brightly at us, saying, "Don't you think I look fine? Everybody says I look fine."