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| May and Sutherland Maxwell |
Ruhiyyih Khanum explains that:
When 'Abdu'l-Baha consented to come to Montreal [in 1912] and
arrangements were being made, my father [he wasn’t a Baha’i then] explained to
Mother that though He would of course be their guest, he did not want to have
the Master in his home but would engage a suite for him at the Windsor Hotel.
All his sensitive Scots reticence shrank from the publicity and limelight that
would be thrown on him as the host of such an attention-attracting guest as the
Persian Prophet and His entourage would constitute. Mother was heartbroken, but
she did not remonstrate, realizing perhaps that such things cannot be debated but
must arise from the heart. The day before the scheduled arrival of
'Abdu'l-Baha, my father rushed into Mother's room, the largest bedroom, facing
the garden and possessing three bay windows, and looking critically at her
furniture declared: 'This is not good enough for ‘Abdu’l--Baha, I'm going right
down to Morgans to buy a new set', and rushed off and immediately purchased and
had delivered a bed, dressing table and chairs in white-painted Louis XV style.
One can only imagine how great was her joy that her husband of his own accord
should have felt the longing to have the Master under his own roof. He himself
met the Master at the train and begged Him to accept the hospitality of his
home.
(Adapted from ‘The Maxwells of Montreal, vol. 1’, by Violette Nakhjavani)
