to main pageOver 300 people from all over Ireland, some from England and the United States, gathered with her family to celebrate the life of Pari Twiname, who passed away peacefully at her home at the Dreen, Cullybackey on Saturday 3rd February. Pari herself had asked friends Janine and Zhenia to sing her favourite prayers and sacred music at the funeral and Hazel Holmlund to give the eulogy. Her family chose the other prayers that were read at the celebration of her life.
Pari was born in Yazd, Iran in 1944. Her father had been a Zoroastrian. He later became a Baha'i but her mother was third generation in the Faith. Indeed her grandparents had embraced the Faith in its earliest days. Her family sent her to England for her education when she was 15 and after finishing secondary school she went on to study nursing and become a district nurse.
She came to Northern Ireland in the early 80's, along with daughter Helen, to assist with the teaching work in Coleraine, where she gained her nursing degree at the age of 40. It was while in Coleraine that Pari met up again with her teenage sweetheart, John, and they were married in 1985. Early in 1986 they moved to Portglenone and both were founder members of the Spiritual Assembly of Ballymena District.
As a child Pari had a dream that one day she would live in a big house that she could fill with children and provide a haven for the helpless. When she moved to the Dreen in Cullybackey in 1990 she really hoped to fulfil her childhood dream but it didn't work out exactly as she had planned. Her mother in Iran had suffered a terrifying experience at the hands of the revolutionary guards which left her completely traumatised. and ,only after frustratingly difficult negotiations, Pari was finally able to bring her to Cullybackey where she nursed her devotedly until her death in 1994. In 1995 she was one of 13 women from a range of voluntary organisations, and the only one from Ballymena, who attended the Fourth World Conference of Women in Beijing, China. The 14 areas of inequality, ranging from poverty to education to health to domestic violence formed the basis of the United Nations Fourth Action Programme. She was one of the founders of Women's Aid in Ballymena and represented the Carer's Association on Women's Forum, Northern Ireland.
It was only days after her return from Beijing that Pari discovered she had cancer but she had resolved to dedicate herself to playing her part in the Fourth Action Programme and fought her illness to the amazement of doctors and specialists for more than 5 years. Struggling against considerable discomfort she continued to shower loving hospitality, at the Dreen, on the countless visitors of all creeds and cultures right up until a few months before her death.
Those who knew Pari Twiname will always remember her radiant smile, her caring nature, her wonderful hospitality and her love of flowers. She always stopped to smell the roses. She couldn't pass a rosebush. All her friends knew that she loved flowers and the display of floral tributes at the funeral was magnificent. So much so, that, breaking with tradition, her family decided to fill her house with all the bouquets and floral arrangements that otherwise would have been destroyed on her grave by the weather.
Pari loved to share the Faith with everyone and she did this through her love for others, her voluntary service and her generous hospitality. The final reading at her funeral was a truly fitting tribute to her:
"Now the time has come when we must part, but separation is only of our bodies, in spirit we are united. Another commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another even as I love you. Great mercy and blessings are promised to the peoples of your land, but on one condition: that their hearts are filled with the fire of love, that they live in perfect kindness and harmony like one soul in different bodies. If they fail in this condition the blessings will be deferred. Take no thought for yourselves or your lives, whether ye eat or whether ye sleep, whether ye are comfortable, whether ye are well or ill, whether ye are with friends or foes, whether ye receive praise or blame; for all of these things ye must care not at all. Ye must die to yourselves and to the world, so shall ye be born again and enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Behold a candle how it gives its light. It weeps its life away drop by drop in order to give forth its flame of life."
Pari had fufilled all her ambitions to the best of her ability but she could not leave until one last dream had been realised. Her only daughter, now living in Seattle, had a baby, Pari's first grandchild, on 30th December. Helen travelled from Seattle against her solicitous American doctor's orders and arrived in Cullybackey late on 1st February to place baby Robin in her grandmother's arms one day before she passed away. Pari's final prayer was answered and she was able to take her flight.
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