Traces That Remain:

A Pictorial History of the Early Days of the Bahá'í Faith among the Japanese

Sheridan Sims, editor

Tokyo: Bahá'í Publishing Trust of Japan, 1989

Chapter 16

16. Mrs. May Bolles Maxwell

"Whoever meets her feels from her association the susceptibilities of the Kingdom. Her company uplifts and develops the soul." So did 'Abdu'l-Bahá describe Mrs. Maxwell in a Tablet addressed to Miss Alexander.

Miss Alexander heard of the Faith in Rome, Italy, Nov. 26, 1900. She knew it to be true and accepted it immediately, but it wasn't until three months later in Paris, that she met Miss May Bolles and learned deeply of this new religion she had embraced.

Miss Alexander wrote of her friendship, "The first meeting with the beloved May Bolles is one of the precious memories of my life. From that day she became my spiritual mother and through all the years her tender mother love has been a guiding star in my life.''

Among her belongings, Miss Alexander had kept two pictures of Mrs. Maxwell and a letter she had written from her home in Canada to the Japanese Bahá'ís dated Nov. 26, 1919, exactly 19 years after Miss Alexander accepted the Faith. Mrs. Maxwell wrote to the Japanese Bahá'ís (in part), "Beloved spiritual children of Agnes! ... How wonderful is our nearness and oneness to Him. For although you are in Japan and we are in Canada,

"Beloved May"

yet we are drawing our light from One Source, the Orb of the Covenant ..."

Miss Alexander and Mrs. Maxwell in 1934.