Hi Susan,

I suspect the reason these premies can't seem to find anyone who remembers me (or so they say) is because I got to DECA early on and was one of the first to get sick and sacked.  Also, the vast majority of those with whom I worked, including Guy Rollins and Jim Hession who were the project managers are now ex-premies.  In fact, Guy Rollins, who I worked directly with for a year, had a hard time remembering anything about the DECA project when he posted on the forum a couple of years ago.  He admitted that the whole period of time was a blur to him and I'm not surprised.   He's one person who Maharaji picked on a lot to demean and ridicule.  Guy always treated me with great respect and kindness and we worked well together.  It was a cloistered environment -- both within the small warehouse and especially the Deisgn Room and Maharaji's adjoining suite of offices, and frequently I was out of the office doing various errands for the design folks.

I've received so many emails from former DECA premies and some of us do have a difficult time remembering each other.  All who contact me are ex-premies now, though none have wanted to post here or have their names revealed because so many of them got very sick from the toxic chemicals that they just didn't want to extend the energy and they wanted their privacy preserved.  They all commented that Maharaji never extended any help to them with their healthcare though and some were very ill from the chems for ten+ years.

It's been 25 years, after all.  Every one of the premies who were there from the time of the small Hialeah warehouse in early 1979 were so busy and working very hard all the time that we never had much time to socialize.   The biggest break that I remember having was during Hurricane David that happened around September 8, 1979.  That was when the Miami Beach program had to be cancelled and the premies in the small Hialeah warehouse were evacuated up to Orlando.  We considered it a vacation (about four days) and stayed in our rooms most of the time or wandered around the hotel until the hurricane was over.  I don't remember getting a knock on the door to have "during the night" darshan.  What money did we have to give?  We were all ashram premies!  Man we all slept a lot during those four days!!!

Even at the Hans Jayanti 1979 Festival, we worked straight through on the DECA project in a trailer on the festival site in Kissimmee.  The only time we went out to the festival grounds was to listen to Maharaji speak or to go sleep in our tents. 

Once we took delivery the B707 (it was a hunk of junk--we called it the big yellow banana because it was painted a gawdy yellow) and we moved operations to the Complex there were so many premies transferred down there, I didn't know who half of them were.  It was made very clear to us by Maharaji personally that we  were there to work to complete the project not to chit-chat and socialize.

The many times I've corresponded with ex-premies from DECA we've had to describe how we looked back then in order to remember each other.  For instance, there was one former premie who I remember clearly because of the particular service he did at the small warehouse.  His name was familiar, but I drew a blank on what he looked like. 

Plus, we were dog tired all the time.  So yes, it's quite absurd that my presence is questioned -- I don't need anyone from the online premie group to validate my life for me, anyway!  And no one was there for any recognition -- the focus was always on Maharaji -- that's what people remember the most (their experiences being around him) especially during the period of 1979 through early 1980.  We weren't there to be visible -- we was there to serve the Lord, after all...

Cynthia