Part 5a:

ELIZABETH CHAPIN PATTERSON

She had a split second to decide. A car was barreling down the center of the road straight at her. Should she hit it head on, or risk her car overturning and veer to the side? A moment before, Baba, in the front seat beside her, had stretched out His hand. Perhaps this was her signal. She hit the car head on. It was driven by a paraplegic driving for the first time, a car specially built for him.

Baba was thrown clear of the car, landing on His back in the muddy ditch. Mehera was critically injured by breaking glass. Mehru was injured and Elizabeth was crushed against the steering wheel with most of her ribs and both arms broken, and her shoulder dangerously cut. But she never called attention to herself until the others were on their way in the ambulance to the hospital, in Prague, Oklahoma. It was the morning of May 24, 1952. A moment of destiny for America — and of course for Elizabeth too. Years before, Baba, at Harmon-on-Hudson, had plucked a small pink wildflower and given it to her, asking her to keep it and remember the date. She pressed it in her Bible — and found it years later. The date? May 24, 1932. She said "Through the experience of sharing Baba's suffering to a degree, I feel my life, instead of being nearly cut off, was extended for a purpose; the gift of the little flower was grace from the Master to be treasured in the heart."

I find it interesting that Baba chose a woman to be at the wheel when this so-called accident spilled the Avataric blood on our soil. Certainly, in a way, she had been prepared for it. She had driven a Red Cross ambulance in France during World War I. She had driven Baba and the girls thousands of miles over the rough roads of India in her Buick, during the blue bus tours, and also in the U.S. Baba once said when He allows someone to drive Him, it ensures that they will not get lost while traversing the Path through the Spiritual Planes. Thus, she was a modern, feminine Arjuna for her dear Krishna-Baba.

She had always loved travelling and in fact was one of five foreigners taken on a scientific arctic expedition on the Soviet ice breaker Malygin, going within 400 miles of the North Pole. This was in 1931, the very same year in which she met Baba at Harmon (November 8th), through her friendship with the Schlosses. It was the turning point of her life. She said "When I first saw Him it was just as though I had always known Him ... He was like an old friend. It was instant recognition ... His silence didn't seem strange or awkward ... " She had dreamed of Him 3 times when only 12 years old.

Elizabeth was born of "blue book" parents in Chicago, Illinois. They moved to New York City when she was five years old. It was there she made her formal debut in 1917. She then took up an unusual career for a young girl of her day becoming one of the first women insurance brokers with a prominent Wall Street firm, a position she held for 30 years. I well recall the morning of May 18, 1952, when I saw Baba on the path behind me at the Center in Myrtle Beach. He gestured that I should call Elizabeth. When she came to the door of her cabin, Baba asked on His board, "Where are your insurance papers?"

"In the cellar at Youpon Dunes," she replied.

Baba told her to get them out and carry them with her on the trip West. She had five policies which helped to pay the enormous bills of the accident.

In 1929 she married Kenneth Patterson, a charming man who was a stock broker and who also played the piano very well. He too had met Baba and so, when he gave me a ride uptown, I asked him what Baba was like. He said, it was an unusual thing to say about a man, but Baba was very beautiful and had exquisitely expressive hands. I thought the last a fitting comment from a pianist(1).

Their marriage was an amicable one; but when I met Elizabeth in 1943 she was living with Norina and Nadine and giving all her energy to Baba's cause. Elizabeth had joined Baba at Portofino, Cannes, in Hollywood, New York, and on His trips west. She was on the first trip to India in 1933 and of course joined the Nasik ashram, together with her friend Norina. Elizabeth and Norina were an extraordinary pair ... so opposite in temperament. Norina was fiery, volatile, talkative, Elizabeth quiet and immensely calm. Baba used to imitate them, Norina showed us how — "Norina goes too fast, Elizabeth goes too slow!" I have rarely seen Elizabeth get overwrought — perhaps about her animal pets, of which she was so fond. Baba once told Elizabeth and Norina they had been together "since the Creation ..." I used to think this was Baba's peculiar Avataric sense of humour, but it is comprehensible if both are members of His Circle. Baba named Elizabeth Dilruba, meaning 'stealer of hearts.'