DELIA WILL BE WITH ME AT THE END!

 
It was a great shock when I heard on the morning of February 1 from Adi Jr. that he had received a phone call from India telling him that Baba had dropped His body on January 31. I kept saying, "It can't be true," and crying. I phoned around to everyone. It seemed as if the whole world had disintegrated. It was the unbelievable happening.

There was already a meeting arranged at the center to discuss plans for going to the darshan. Now, instead, I went around to see Adi and we went together to the meeting to break the news, remembering what Baba has said, "When I drop my body I will remain in all who love me, I can never die. Lovingly obey me and you will find me."

How I found myself on the plane with Adi Jr. bound for India and the entombment is nothing short of a miracle. Until a few hours before the plane took off, I had absolutely no intention of making the journey. Adi had telephoned me to say that he did not wish to travel to India alone, and that he had been trying to trace Don [Stevens] to see if he could travel with him. He was about to leave for the airport and gave me the flight number, asking me to do my best to trace Don. Up to that point, I still did not contemplate going.

I did not succeeded in contacting Don, but I suddenly felt intuitively impelled to go myself. I was talking to Hilde Halpern and she asked, "Are you thinking of going?"

"How can I?" I said. "It's Sunday and I've only got £3 in my purse!" Half an hour later she phoned again and said Alain Youell would drive me to the airport in Don's car. Her daughter Maria came with us and she lent me a few extra pounds spending money. I left in such a hurry, with such little time to spare, that I only had time to throw a few things into a small bag and leave a short note for my family saying, "I've gone to India!"

I joined Adi and Frenee at the airport but when I tried to buy a ticked from Air India, they refused to take my check. Meanwhile, Adi had checked in and disappeared to board the flight. I had almost given up the whole idea when eventually Frenee managed to persuade the clerk to issue my ticket, pointing out that her brother worked for Air India and that she and Adi would guarantee my check. This left me just enough time, before the bus moved off for the plane, to throw myself in beside an astonished Adi.

Usually I am a very bad air traveler, but somehow I sailed through this flight, except that as we got off the plane at the first stop I fell and hurt my right hip. I remember this particularly as it was this hip I had an operation on later. I hardly noticed the long car journey from Bombay to Ahmednagar, I was too stunned to take in what happening.

I think Donkin met us at Poona and drove us to Meherabad where we were taken by Eruch into the Tomb which was to be left open for seven days so that Baba's devotees could pay their last respects. Sarosh was there and he invited me to stay with him and his wife, Viloo, at their home in Ahmednagar.

How glad I was, the next day, to be with Mehera, Mani, the mandali, and the large gathering that came to pay their last respects to their Beloved. Of the Westerners there were only Don Stevens, Dr. Kenmore, Rick Chapman, Allan Cohen, and Aneece Hassen — the Luck brothers arrived on the last day and stayed for some time.

So does Baba's will manifest itself at all times in our lives, for some time afterward I heard that Baba had said years earlier, "Delia will be with me at the end!"