Welcomed on the Steps

In 1912 a group of Californians, including Helen Goodall, Ella Cooper and Harriet Wise, arrived in New York to see ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. After a bath and dinner, the women took a taxi to the house where He was staying. Arriving, they stepped out of the cab to find ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sitting on the steps of the house awaiting them. "Very welcome! Very welcome! It is good that you have come", He said.

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On 11 July 1912 Mírzá Maḥmúd-i-Zarqání wrote in his diary that after morning prayers ‘Abdu’l-Bahá “bestowed His favors upon the friends and well-wishers, especially on Mrs Goodall and Mrs Cooper and other friends from California, confirming and assisting them.”

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A few days later Juliet Thompson saw the Master “with a few others--Mrs Helen Goodall, Miss Wise, Ella Goodall Cooper--and He spoke to us of the kindness of God.” She recorded His words: “When we meet kindness in a human being He said, how happy it makes us. How much happier we will be when we realize the kindness of God.”

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*Sources: Earl Redman, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Their Midst, p. 149; Mahmúd’s Diary, 11 July 1912; The Diary of Juliet Thompson, 18 July 1912*

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