My mother was British and my father French as he was born in Paris, though his parents were from Russia and Norway. My mother was Church of England and my father, although Jewish, was of no specific religion. Father said that when I became 21 I could choose for myself what religion I wanted to be but he taught me always to have the fear of God in my heart and to be upright and never to hurt anyone. By the time I was 18 my father had passed away. At the time I was studying in Paris.
One day I received a letter from my mother in Monte-Carlo saying that she had met a very nice American lady who had taken her to a meeting where there were Persian people, and that she had invited them home for tea.
Little did I know! My mother Dorothy Bodansen with my son Daniel and his wife Lyse. Mother passed away in a few days prior to her 94th birthday. Her husband Aziz joined the family a few months later; two friends from America and two from Persia, this is where most of the pioneers came from in those days, east and west. She quoted from the Tablet on all of her many talks over radio and television on behalf of local and national humane organizations, and while pioneering in Monaco during the Ten Year World Crusade she presented a copy of the Tablet to Prince Rainier and Princess Grace.
She retired from her profession and left the U. During her years in Monaco and France she attended many European summer schools, the Frankfurt Conference in , and the World Congress in London in My first visit to the Holy Land was in November for a nine-day pilgrimage. This first time was a unique experience different from the other feelings subsequently experienced during other pilgrimages. On the Tuesday afternoon the Universal House of Justice, whose seat at the time was at 10 Haparsim Street, received us.
Those two words were so deeply moving to me. It had been five years since I had accepted the Faith and it was only then that I understood that I had finally found my way home. It was not the end but the beginning of more reading, deepening and trying to find the wonders hidden in this glorious Faith, while my eyes began to open up to reality.
