Although it was exciting to have a film crew film her father at work, fourteen-year-old Rachel really knew that all the experimentation had paid off when her father returned one day from a trip into Philadelphia. Lawrence had gone looking for work, and when he stepped through the door of the family home on his return, Rachel could see the excitement in his blue eyes.
“Come here, everyone. I have the most wonderful news to tell you,” Lawrence said, hanging up his hat.
Katherine and the children gathered around, and then Lawrence went on. “I was sitting quietly on the train, riding into Philadelphia, when a stranger came up to me. He sat beside me, and he said, ‘Your resemblance to the portraits of Christ is striking. I have to ask you, what is your name and what do you do?’ So I told him, ‘My name is Saint, and I make stained-glass windows for churches.’ ‘Well,’ the man replied as he reached out to shake my hand, ‘my name is Raymond Pitcairn, and I am building a cathedral. When can you start on my windows?’”
Rachel’s mother clapped her hands. “Oh, Lawrence, that’s wonderful! See, children. God has answered our prayers. Your father has work to do.”
“And lots of it,” Lawrence added. “The cathedral is the Bryn Athyn Cathedral in Philadelphia, and after that he says he wants me to work on the new National Cathedral being built at Mount Saint Alban in Washington, D.C.”
Sam and Phil let out simultaneous whoops of joy, and Rachel heard Sam say under his breath, “Thank You, God. Now I will be able to learn to fly.”
Rachel felt a glow of satisfaction as she thought of all the wonderful opportunities that a steady paycheck would afford the family. And, indeed, everyone benefited from the work her father did on the two beautiful new cathedrals. For once there was enough food in the house for everyone, and Sam got his flying lessons. But best of all, the children took turns traveling first into Philadelphia and then to Washington, D.C., with their father to admire his work.
It was on one of these trips to Washington, D.C., that Rachel was introduced to Mr. and Mrs. Parmalee, the elderly couple who were sponsoring the work on the stained-glass windows at the National Cathedral. Mrs. Parmalee, a millionaire in her own right, and Rachel liked each other instantly. Soon Rachel was spending a lot of time in the Parmalees’ home. Since the couple had no children of their own, Mrs. Parmalee treated Rachel like a daughter. In fact, in 1931 Mrs. Parmalee suggested that she take Rachel on a trip to Great Britain for her upcoming eighteenth birthday. It was to be a “coming-out” trip, which many wealthy and eligible young women took in those days.
Rachel was delighted with the idea. She had never dreamed of being able to cross the Atlantic Ocean to see the British Isles. Plans for the trip were soon under way. Rachel’s Grandmother Proctor sent bolts of fabric to be made into suitable dresses for a debutante. All of the fuss being made over her was new to Rachel, who had to admit that she enjoyed the beautiful dresses made from the fabric as well as the thought of traveling first class, staying in grand hotels, and eating sumptuous meals. However, Rachel had no idea that during her time away in Great Britain she would be faced with a decision that would direct the course of her entire life.
Chapter 3
“Her People”
The trip to Great Britain was just as Rachel imagined it would be, filled with interesting people and places to see. In true Saint style she took along a sketchpad wherever she went to record what she saw. While visiting Edinburgh, Scotland, she was particularly impressed with the statue “Fatigue” in Princes Street. Rachel was even more impressed when she learned that the sculptor was forty years of age before he had undertaken his first creative work. For some reason the thought that no matter how old a person was, he or she could learn new things inspired Rachel.
In London Mrs. Parmalee and Rachel toured many churches, where they saw the great stained-glass windows from the Middle Ages. As she viewed the windows, Rachel was reminded of her parents’ telling of how overwhelmed and awed they had been on seeing Europe’s stained-glass windows for the first time.
Throughout the trip Rachel and Mrs. Parmalee stayed in the finest hotels and shopped at the most exclusive stores. At first this was exciting to Rachel, but after a while the charm began to wear off. Rachel wondered about all the money that was being spent unnecessarily. Just one pot of tea and some scones at Harrods cost enough money to feed the entire Saint family for three days! By the end of the tour, Rachel was ready to return home.
Finally the two women boarded the Cunard Line’s ship Aquitania—in a first-class cabin, of course—for the journey back to the United States. At lunch one day as the ship steamed across the Atlantic Ocean, Mrs. Parmalee’s face grew serious. “Rachel, dear, have you enjoyed yourself?” Mrs. Parmalee asked.
“Why, yes,” Rachel replied. “I have seen so many things I never dreamed I would see.”
“Wonderful,” Mrs. Parmalee said, reaching over to pat her hand. “You may have been raised in humble circumstances, but you have the fine instincts and family background that would make me proud to call you my daughter.”
Rachel felt herself blushing. In her household of seven brothers, compliments were few and far between.
“In fact, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I am getting older,” Mrs. Parmalee sighed before going on, “and it’s time to think of the future. We seem to be very compatible, you and I, so I have a proposition to make. If you will be my companion and help me with light duties, I will make you my heiress.”
Rachel stared down at her teacup, unable to imagine what the correct response to such an offer might be. She had heard her father say that Mrs. Parmalee was worth over a million dollars, and now Mrs. Parmalee wanted to give all her money to Rachel!
Rachel did not speak for a while, and again Mrs. Parmalee reached over and patted her hand. “Well, dear, I know it’s a lot to take in. Perhaps you will have an answer for me by the end of the voyage,” she said.
Throughout the rest of the day, Rachel found herself scrutinizing her fellow first-class passengers. She listened in on their conversations during card games and watched as they danced at dinner. Was this really the life she had been born to live? Her grandmother Proctor would certainly say yes, as would Mrs. Parmalee. But Rachel knew that she had to make the decision for herself. She thought of her mother patching the boys’ clothes by lamplight and telling them yet again that there was no meat for dinner or that they would have to eat biscuits and lard for breakfast and lunch. She thought of the way the coffee grounds were used three times before being discarded and how the whole family had to pool their money to buy pencils and paper at the start of each school year.
Life in the Saint family had been hard in some respects, Rachel could see that, but she knew that her mother had chosen that life. Her mother had done so mainly because she felt that God was calling her to it and because she loved Rachel’s father so much. Even though her mother was a Wellesley College graduate and a student of fine arts, Rachel knew that in her heart her mother did not regret the life she had chosen. This knowledge brought Rachel face-to-face with the choice she had to make. Would she take the million-dollar inheritance and the opportunity to travel in style, or would she choose the unknown? Would she head out into the world with the love of her family but very little in the way of financial support?
That night Rachel got hardly any sleep. She heard the bells of the night watch and the rumble of the ship’s horn sounding as the vessel passed through a fog bank. As daybreak approached, Rachel decided to creep out of her cabin and up on deck to see the sunrise. With any luck, the coastline of the United States might even be in view by now.
On deck a cool wind was blowing, and it sent a shiver down Rachel’s spine. Rachel wrapped a woolen shawl closely around her. She was the only passenger out on the first-class deck. As the sun began to creep above the sea, barely above the horizon, its long, yellow rays reflected off the coastline of North America in the distance. The sight of the coast suddenly warmed Rachel, despite the wind.
With the first glimpse of the coastline, Rachel knew that she would have to make a decision. Well, not make it, exactly. Sometime in the night she had admitted to herself that the life of luxury was not for her. Deep in her heart she knew that God had a plan for her life and that it did not include sipping endless cups of tea and chatting idly. No, somehow Rachel knew that God was asking her to trust that He would lead her into some great adventure, not an adventure that would make her rich but a great adventure nonetheless.
As she rehearsed in her head the right way to tell Mrs. Parmalee of her decision so as not to offend her too much, Rachel was aware of something strange happening to her. It was as if she were not standing on the deck of the ship anymore but was instead standing in a jungle clearing, looking at a group of brown-skinned, half-naked people. The people beckoned for her to come to them.
As quickly as the scene came, it left. Rachel felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. She had read about many figures in the Bible, such as Abraham, King David, Isaiah, Paul, and John, who had experienced visions. Was that what she had just experienced? Without thinking about it, Rachel fell to her knees and closed her eyes. “God,” she prayed, “I will give my whole life to You and go and be a missionary to those brown-skinned people if You want me to.”
All morning as the Aquitania sailed closer to shore and then finally entered New York Harbor to dock, Rachel was preoccupied with thoughts of her vision. Who were those people, and when would she get to meet them?
Surprisingly Rachel found it effortless to tell Mrs. Parmalee that she did not want to be her heir. The two women parted company in Philadelphia as friends, even though Mrs. Parmalee had to admit that she could not understand how a girl could turn down such an opportunity.
Upon her return home to Huntingdon Valley, Rachel had a renewed sense of purpose. Although she continued to help her mother raise the younger boys, she also enrolled in Percy Crawford’s evening Bible school. She loved studying at the school so much that, when she was twenty, she decided to enroll at the Philadelphia College of Bible.
As she studied, Rachel was convinced that somewhere in the world was a group of brown-skinned people in a jungle waiting for her to come to them. Soon after she graduated from Philadelphia College of Bible in 1936 at age twenty-two, Rachel applied to be a missionary. However, she was turned down because of a weak back. Rachel thought it ironic, since her back problems had never stopped her from being an active family helper or from studying her Bible. At first she was angry about the decision, but then she began to wonder whether “her people,” as she called them, were not yet ready for her.
With this thought in mind, Rachel went to work at the Keswick Colony of Mercy, a halfway house for alcoholics located in rural New Jersey. Nothing could have been further from the life of ease Mrs. Parmalee had offered and which Rachel had turned down, but Rachel loved her work at the halfway house. She often laughed and told friends that being raised with seven brothers was the best training she could have had for the job. Sometimes in the course of her work she had to confront violent, drunken men and at other times talk such men out of committing suicide.
After 1941, with America firmly involved in the fighting of World War II, the problem of alcohol abuse seemed to Rachel to reach epidemic proportions. As a result of their involvement in the war, many men whose dreams were shattered turned to alcohol for comfort. But when their drinking got out of control, they would come to the mission seeking help. And Rachel was always willing and eager to help.
