Which town?

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It became imperative She consecrates Herself more intensively to this combat of every second and to the discovery of this new physical world (or of this new way or of this new mode of existence in the material world).

And thus came a radical ordeal.

It was in May, 1962.

She almost passed to “the other side” and then She returned “here”, with a resolve that much more concrete and collected. From that day onwards, She no longer came down Her stairs and would only appear publicly on very rare occasions, from the balcony of the second floor overhanging the neighbouring terraces and the street below, facing East.

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She who had been for so many years their daily reference, moving amongst them all and accessible on so many occasions - at the sports grounds, at the school or at the theatre, during Her visits to the factories, the workshops, the farms and gardens or Her games of tennis in the late afternoons, near the ocean – was suddenly asking them all to enter into a more conscious and inward relation, and Her presence became only dearer for it. And all, secretaries and visiting disciples, students and guests, came to venerate this moment when – for a birthday, for one work or another, for a report or an interview - one could at last climb up the narrow staircase that acceded the tiny covered terrace serving as anteroom and, often after a long suspended, vibrant and silent wait, enter Her rooms where She sat and kneel before Her.

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