Baba asked, "How many are not going to Ahmednagar?"
About 20 persons were staying in Poona for various reasons.
Interpreting Baba's gestures, Eruch said, "Jeanne [Shaw], Baba wants you to go. What if you die going on this pilgrimage, you will be blessed if you die on the way to my last resting place."
Jeanne smiled and nodded her agreement.
Mona and Manohar Sakhare entered to say goodbye to Baba. They embraced him tearfully and Baba lightly patted their backs. At one point during the gathering, Baba had called Mona on the stage. At first she had refused to come. She was angry with Baba. Her health had been poor for quite a while, and she had been in and out of hospitals. Baba sent Eruch again to call her onstage and this time she came.
Baba told her, "I know how much you have suffered. I know — but won't you bear this infinitesimal amount of suffering for me? I suffer for the whole universe. Will you not share in my suffering?"
Mona burst out sobbing uncontrollably. Baba gave her his handkerchief, wiped her tears and consoled her.
Baba instructed Elizabeth to take a garland worn by him to be preserved at the Myrtle Beach Center.
Kitty had lived with Baba in India for fifteen years (1937 to 1952), but during Baba's 1952 visit to America, he asked her to stay in Myrtle Beach. At Guruprasad, Kitty asked Baba if she would be returning to India to stay with him. Baba replied she was to remain in Myrtle Beach and continue to help Elizabeth. He permitted her to break her return journey to see her brother Herbert in England, and also Will Backett, who had not attended the gathering due to his frail health. Kitty recalled how she felt:
I think I would admit that this was the saddest day of my life, the sadness of realizing that I was definitely to return and wholeheartedly make my home in the West. Until 1962, there had still remained the glimmer of hope that one day Baba would call and I would return to India to live once again in close proximity to his physical presence.
Kitty felt that she would never see Baba again, and she was right. For most of the Westerners who attended the East-West Gathering, it was their final opportunity of being in Baba's physical presence.
Continuing about their bus trip to Ahmednagar the next day, Baba remarked, "Don and Dr. Bharucha will be accompanying you. Francis, are you going? Please see that no one dies en route. Jeanne," he teased, "stop worrying!"
Baba added, "You all will leave at six o'clock tomorrow morning. Meherjee wants to know if you want snacks on the bus, or tea and toast in your hotels?"
Baba himself decided, "No snacks!"