A fellow student at my high school, Thellie Lovejoy, recently became a Bahá’í and was actively teaching the Faith. I was intrigued and attended a few firesides at her house where her mother was also a Bahá’í. She invited me to attend the Bahá’í school in Geyserville. At that time they were the only Bahá’ís in the local community but their love of the Faith soon attracted others and soon there was an LSA in Milpitas, California, where I lived.

I declared my faith in Bahá’u’lláh in April 1969 at the Bahá’í school at Geyserville, California USA.  That Bahá’u’lláh was the return of the Spirit of Christ was hard to deny and convinced me of truth of this Cause. As a Christian, I felt my love for Christ became stronger and more meaningful. I also liked the fact that I could learn about other faiths and how they were all connected.

Geyserville was the first Bahá’í school in the States, although it now no longer exists. The California Bahá’í school is now located in Santa Cruz. There is a photograph of Geyserville in Bahjí, as Shoghi Effendi was proud of the existence of an American Bahá’í school. It shows the bell which was used to call us for lectures, meals etc. I have many happy memories – one of which was the English prayer book that a lot of the attendees signed for me on my declaration; when I look at that prayer book I see some of the names of pioneers who were later martyred. It was also signed by Dr Aktar Khavari who attended the school. It was he who told me the only way I could become a better Christian was to become a Bahá’í!  I find it interesting that it was an English prayer book that was given to me. Little did I know that I would later be living in England myself in the future and marrying an English Bahá’í!

I am the eldest of four children of Filipino/American parents and born in San Francisco, California.  We were brought up as Catholics, but later changed to Episcopalian (similar to C of E). I was baptised and confirmed and had a strong Christian faith. We attended church every Sunday and all the Christian holidays were very special. Our local church was in a rural setting and had an active youth group with regular retreats which I attended. After I attended Geyserville, I told my parents I wanted to become a Bahá’í. They were very concerned I was getting mixed up with some weird sect (of which there were several in the States at that time). The priest and several nuns came out to see me to try to convince me otherwise! However, my parents could see how serious I was and eventually consented to my enrolling in the Faith. Sadly, my becoming a Bahá’í alienated my brother and sisters, who were dedicated Christians. My parents later met other Bahá’ís and could see how sincere and genuine they were and this was to make a lasting impression on my parents, who became friends of the Faith. They eventually attended a few Bahá’í socials and liked the local Bahá’ís. This was to stand me in good stead for future service to the Faith for which my parents financially supported me.

My friend Thellie and I attended the first International Youth Conference in Wilmette in the summer of 1969.  Rúhíyyih Khánum was the main speaker and very inspiring. She shared her stories of teaching the Faith in Africa and appeared in full African dress.  I can still see her now – so noble and charismatic. She was encouraging us to pioneer and there the seed was planted.

Thellie and I applied to the International Goals Committee (IGC) who said Bahá’í pioneers were needed in Scandinavia. We initially asked about Finland, but for some reason that didn’t work out, so the IGC liaised with the NSA of Norway and we were asked to go to Trondheim.

Considering that I had never been out of California, it was remarkable that at the ripe age of 18, Thellie and I pioneered to Norway. The Norwegian friends helped us tremendously, meeting us at the airport, arranging our travel and giving us local accommodation. One of the local Bahá’ís, Aslaug, let me stay with her (she was in her 70s) and I became very fond of her. She spoke very little English, so I had to learn Norwegian! They enrolled me into the local high school. One of my fondest memories of Aslaug is of her making me fresh waffles with home-made raspberry jam – my first taste of a local snack. It is an understatement to say that living in Norway was a huge culture shock, coming from California. The long dark winter nights were challenging.  I adapted to the Norwegian way of life and learnt how to cross-country ski, and saw the Northern Lights several times. The cold and snow was definitely a new experience. The Norwegian people are very reserved but once you make a friend there they are very loyal. There were other Bahá’í pioneers that also came, one was from Pakistan, who also found the cold challenging! Other pioneers, mostly American like myself, lived in other parts of Norway.

There was already a wonderful Persian family, the Navidis, who earlier pioneered to Trondheim, and their apartment became my second home. Their love and support helped us both to adjust to Norwegian life and they held regular firesides. They were like my surrogate parents. Unfortunately, Thellie did not settle in Trondheim and returned to California. The Navidis’ daughter, Pauline Rafat, later became an Auxiliary Board member for Norway. She used to go on teaching trips up and down Norway on her own, leaving her young family behind for her husband to look after! The love and unity of our small community helped the Faith to spread and we soon had some serious contacts (university students) who later declared. One of those now translates the writings and prayers from English into Norwegian, and has pioneered to a very northern town in Norway.

I taught the Faith to my fellow high school students, who thought I was odd to leave California for Norway. However, they were incredibly polite and it was only when they were very drunk did they tell me they thought I was brave to go to Norway for my beliefs. Being brown skinned with dark hair, I stuck out like a sore thumb with the fair Norwegians, and this gave me many opportunities to teach the Faith. I adapted to the Norwegian way of life and became fluent in spoken Norwegian. I still keep in touch with one of my Norwegian classmates, Bodil Stene, and we have even met up a few times over the years. She told me that her partner’s cousin, Britt Strandie Thoresen, is a Bahá’í and is married to a famous conductor, also a Baha’i, Lasse Thoresen.

During my 2½ years in Norway, I attended other European Bahá’í schools both in the winter, e.g. Salzburg, Austria, and the summer. It was wonderful to meet other Bahá’í youth and European friends. One of the conferences I attended was at Fiesch, in Switzerland. Unbeknown to me, my future husband David was also at this conference, although we didn’t meet there. But he was in the same dormitory as my then-Danish Bahá’í boyfriend!

My parents and family also visited me in Norway, which was the most memorable holiday for my parents. They never would have visited such a country if I hadn’t pioneered there. We had a wonderful time together and they loved the Norwegian countryside.

After leaving Norwegian high school, I worked as a nursing auxiliary in a local nursing home. I had always wanted to be a nurse from being a young girl. However, the gossiping of the Sister of the ward totally put me off the profession. It was there I met a physiotherapist who invited me to learn about that profession. After consulting with a careers advisor, it was decided I would be better going to England to train as a physiotherapist as English was my first language and there were more physiotherapy schools in England; hence my days in Norway were coming to a close. I applied to a School of Physiotherapy in Manchester and was accepted. I was going to England! I had every intention of returning to Norway to work as a qualified physiotherapist but that never happened. I corresponded with David Grant, who was then the secretary of the LSA in Manchester. I didn’t meet him till many months later as he was away in the States working and teaching the Faith with his best friend, Nigel Freeman, who later was to be the best man at our wedding.

Before I left Norway I applied to go on pilgrimage. When I arrived in Tel Aviv in 1973, it was only a few years after the Six Day War. The airport had soldiers with machine guns on the roof of the main terminal. Then the airport was more or less in the middle of a desert and was pretty basic. On the road there were people riding camels and there was even a crashed airplane still in the sand by the side of the road.

I felt I needed some spiritual renewal and guidance before the next stage in my life. Those were the days when pilgrims were only a few at a time. In Akka I came upon some Arab and Jewish children playing together.  I asked them if there were any hostilities and they said no! They were just people playing together, what is the problem?  When David and I went on pilgrimage in 2011, we found a photograph of some of those pilgrims and found myself there! (see photo). One of the Norwegian Bahá’ís, an American pioneer named Betty Koyl, asked me to give a present to David Ruhe, who was then on the Universal House of Justice. He invited me to lunch and I had a wonderful afternoon with him. What an extraordinary human being, so intelligent, knowledgeable, humble and spiritual.

One of my memories was of celebrating my 21^st birthday in the Orkney Islands as part of the Islands Teaching Project. It was a bounty and blessing to teach with Viv and Rita Bartlett and their young daughter, Fleur, who was a toddler at the time. Ruth Smith was also on this teaching trip, and Rona from Dundee.  I also met the Mehrabi family who were pioneers in Kirkwall. I felt very at home in Orkney and throughout our travels in the islands, as the local accent was like a Norwegian dialect with lots of Norwegian influences.

One of the most memorable things I remember about Orkney was the Italian Chapel, which had been built by Italian prisoners of war. It was a little bit of Italy on a very remote Scottish island. The frescos were hand painted and the lamps were made from bully beef tins. The chapel had a very spiritual atmosphere as you could feel the love of God there.

I started my physiotherapy training in 1973 at Manchester Royal Infirmary and qualified in 1976. On becoming one of the Bahá’í community of Manchester and a member of the LSA, I met the Grant family. Manchester, a university and college city, had an active community with lots of students. There were many meetings at the Bahá’í Centre. David is the youngest son of the Grant family and was secretary of the LSA. We started to go out together and within six weeks of meeting we asked his parents for consent to get married! Seven months later we married and 47 years later the rest is history! It was a true bounty and blessing marrying into a Bahá’í family and also inheriting a Bahá’í brother and sister – David’s brother, Gordon, and his wife, Margaret. They have nurtured and loved me even more than my blood family. We had a simple Bahá’í wedding with my family from California, David’s family, and some of the girls I trained with from the School of Physiotherapy. When we had a physiotherapy reunion many years later, they all remembered our Bahá’í wedding and what a lovely day it was for everyone.

My work as a Chartered Physiotherapist started in Bangor, North Wales, where David was at Bangor University doing a qualification in social work and a Masters Degree. I worked at the local hospital and gained general physiotherapy experience. I treated many miners, who had chronic lung conditions, and general orthopaedic cases. We rented a little cottage in Bethesda. We taught children’s classes and the Bangor Bahá’í community was young and very active.

When David finished his studies we moved back to Manchester where he was working as a social worker in Bolton. In Manchester I specialised as a paediatric physiotherapist with young adults with profound learning difficulties. I loved my clients and loved the job though it was physically demanding. I initiated hydrotherapy sessions, exercise classes, individual treatment sessions and Riding for the Disabled.  I finished there when I became pregnant with our daughter, Laura.

Our two boys, Ian and Alastair, soon followed and we had three children under five years of age!

We then moved to Maidstone, Kent, in 1980, where David was to start a new job with Kent Social Services as a manager for learning disability services. We have lived in Kent ever since. David’s parents, Connie and Gordon, followed us to Kent and together we helped form the Spiritual Assembly of Maidstone. Our time in Kent saw us raise our family (one daughter and two sons), start my independent physiotherapy practice and look after David’s parents when their health started to fail. Sadly, since they passed away, as did the other elderly members of our community, Maidstone has not had an Assembly.

Our children attended Bahá’í children’s classes in Thanet, which had a very active community. We attended as many events as we could and tried to support other communities in Kent. Our children never did declare, despite our giving them a Bahá’í upbringing. However, they are serving mankind with their occupations and they are good, loving human beings.

In 2002 I completed a Masters Degree in Veterinary Physiotherapy at the Royal Veterinary College University of London. I commuted there one weekend a month from Kent. I have always loved animals and over the years we have owned five dogs, two cats and four horses. The dogs have given us so much unconditional love and some of them were therapy dogs, helping others with their emotional needs. They have taught our children about care and commitment. I have treated numerous domestic animals alongside my practice for people. I also became Chair of our physiotherapy interest group for animals (Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Animal Therapy or ACPAT). This gave me the opportunity to practise the skills of consultation, negotiation, delegation and fairness.

David and I went on pilgrimage in 2011. It was my second visit but David’s first. So much had changed since my first visit all those years earlier. I particularly loved Akka and could imagine the Master walking around there, visiting the sick and poor. The Bahá’í gardens were finished and the new visitor centre built, and there were so many more pilgrims! It was such a moving and loving experience. Sharing such an intense spiritual experience with my soul mate, David, made me appreciate what a bounty it is to be married to such a wonderful man.

In July 2015 we returned to Norway for a holiday where we also attended the Norwegian Summer School. Ever since we married, I promised David we would visit Norway and I would show him the beautiful country where I pioneered. He was not disappointed.

At the Summer School we met many new Bahá’ís and some of the young children we had known, who by then were adults. I also met up with one of the former Trondheim Bahá’ís who later served on the Norwegian NSA. When I was in Norway, there were 100 Bahá’ís in the whole country, which was a static number for many years. Now there are over 1,000 Bahá’ís!  Trondheim itself has 100 believers, the majority being enthusiastic and dedicated youth. I was so overwhelmed with emotion and humbled that the seeds I helped to sow have now flourished.

Our service to the Faith has diversified over the years. We have had devotionals, firesides, and various meetings, advertised in local papers etc. From 2018 we have been volunteers at a local nursing home and though our teaching efforts are somewhat restricted there, this is a service to our community. I am a member of the Kent County Council SACRE (Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education) as a Bahá’í representative. I have organised some youth SACRE meetings and continue to serve as required. Three years ago we helped form the Maidstone Inter-Faith Network with representatives from other Faiths. We have made new friends and have had some wonderful teaching opportunities. We have had exhibitions, taught in local schools, local scouts groups, and participated in other county events. During the pandemic we have met with the other friends in Kent over the zoom online video connection, many of whom are isolated believers like ourselves, and participated in regular devotionals and study of the Ruhi books. We are endeavouring to have further spiritual conversations with friends and share Holy Days with our neighbours by giving gifts and cards. We also support a local dear Bahá’í friend who struggles with her mental health, especially as lockdowns during the Covid pandemic have been most difficult for her.

To conclude, my Faith in Bahá’u’lláh becomes stronger as we witness the disintegration of the old World Order. David’s and my marriage is the “fortress for wellbeing” as we endeavour to improve our own spiritual lives and become “true Bahá’ís”. During the pandemic, the love and unity of the beloved friends in Kent has deepened and made us feel less like isolated believers. We give praise and thanks to God for all the bounties and blessings He has given us in this earthly life.

_______________________

Jackie Grant

Kent, October 2021

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