On Sunday afternoon [while in London], October 27th, Shoghi
Effendi told Ruhiyyih Khanum that he had a pain across his knuckles in both
hands; she asked him if he had any other pains, and he said no, that just his
fingers pained him and were stir. He added: "I feel so tired, so
tired." She begged him to rest, saying that if he did not wish to go to
bed, at least he should rest quietly because the probability was that he was
getting the influenza which was sweeping through Europe and indeed all over the
world. (She herself had been in bed with fever since Thursday night.) That
night he had a fever and by the following day his temperature had risen to
thirty-nine degrees. Ruhiyyih Khanum succeeded in finding an excellent doctor
who had taken over the practice of a well-known Harley Street physician who had
retired. This doctor was contacted and immediately prescribed medicine for the
beloved Guardian and came to see him early in the evening when he was able to
get away from his hospital. He examined his patient very carefully; heart,
chest, temperature, pulse, etc., and said that he considered that both the
Guardian and Ruhiyyih Khanum had cases of Asiatic influenza, the beloved
Guardian's case being the more severe.
- Ruhiyyih Khanum ('The Passing of Shoghi Effendi')
