Mary Funke, Mrs.—Well-to-do lady of Detroit, friend of Christina Greenstidel (Sister Christine later). First heard Swamiji speak at the Local Unitarian Church on 14.2.1894 and enthralled, attended all the remaining 7 lectures. Did not meet him personally but later learning about his retreat at Thousand Island Park the next summer, the two braved heavy odds to join the group there, welcomed warmly by Swamiji. Attended the classes from July 20 to August 6. Her memoirs of these 7 weeks, one of the principal sources of information about that period, were published in the Prabuddha Bharata (February 1927) and later incorporated in Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda (1961). On Swamiji’s second trip abroad the two friends reached London before him and receiving him at the jetty, travelled with him from Glasgow (17.8.1899) to America. Swamiji advised her to return to Detroit and “find God in your husband and family” (Swami Vivekananda in the West—New Discoveries, Vol. 3, p. 147).