My Mother — Page 146
146 28th she mentioned that she had seen in her dream seven corpses laid out side by side in Bahishti Maqbarah, awaiting burial. We were to leave Simla on the evening of the 30th. That after- noon she complained that she was not feeling at all well. I sent a message for the doctor, but my message did not reach him. I assured Mother that she would be examined by a competent phy- sician the moment we reached Simla the next day. We departed from Qadian in the evening. At Batala my Private Secretary joined us. Mother enquired after his wife and was told that she was lying down in her berth as she was not feeling very well. Mother told him to bring her to the saloon where Mother gave up her bed- room to her and she herself spent the night on a sofa in the sitting room. Next morning she told me she had seen Father in her dream who said to her, ‘You are seriously ill. I shall fetch a doctor whose fee for a visit is 32 rupees’ (At that time that was the fee of a civil surgeon). Arrived at Simla, the doctor examined Mother and diagnosed high blood pressure and infection in the kidneys. The treatment prescribed by the doctor was followed, but the patient grew stead- ily weaker. Soon after arrival at Simla she saw in a dream that Father had arrived and said, ‘I have brought a palanquin for you. We can leave when you are ready. ’ She responded, ‘I can be ready before dawn so that we might perform our journey during the cool hours of the morning. ’ He suggested, ‘It would be better to leave after 8:00 a. m. when the children have finished breakfast. ’ In relating her dream, she described the palanquin and its equipment in detail, the curtains of coloured silk, the silver orna- ments, etc.