Eruch said, "This morning Baba had all the presents spread on his bed. He looked like a shopkeeper."
Baba was sitting in an armchair, and the women sat on the floor and in chairs in a circle around him. He said:
In my love, first comes Mehera, and then Mani. Mehera is my Beloved. Mani is my true sister in work. She loves me and works for me from morning to late at night with correspondence and other details, even though she is not in good health at present. She loves me and has surrendered to me 100 percent.
Baba gave each woman the first present from Mehera — a photograph, made at her request by Baba's brother Beheram. It was a double vignette of Mehera when she was a very young girl and of Baba as a young boy. Baba remarked that Mehera was only seventeen when she first joined him (at Meherabad).
Then, going to his bedroom, Baba called each woman separately to receive her gift from Mehera. Jane Haynes had been called with this first group, though she was a newcomer. She was sitting on the sofa, thinking that the only reason she was there was because of her friendship with Elizabeth.
But when she was called into Baba's bedroom, he remarked to her, "Try to believe I love you for yourself," and he handed her a pair of earrings with his picture in them.
Later, Baba returned to the living room and passed around a small box containing a lock of his hair when he was a young man. It was auburn and curly. He also presented beautiful, large colored photographs painted by Beheram to all his centers and groups. He gave each of the 20 women present some of his hair from another lock, and instructed each to leave directly after receiving this very special prasad.
Baba mentioned how frail his health was, because of his hip pain and persistent fever.
He remarked to Ivy, "I suffered so when I was Jesus, hanging on the cross, that I even felt for a moment as if God had forsaken me, and I uttered: 'My God, my God! Why has thou forsaken me?' "
Baba gave Ivy the manuscript for the book Beams from Meher Baba on the Spiritual Panorama, which he had dictated prior to his coming to America.