Miss Lillian's Sentimental Journey

It was both a diplomatic duty and a sentimental journey for President Carter's mother. While her son voiced mock concern that "when Mother gets home we'll either have very good relations with India or they'll be destroyed once again," Miss Lillian, 78, and Grandson Chip, 26, flew to New Delhi to lead the official U.S. delegation at the funeral last week of Indian President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. Jimmy Carter had nothing to worry about. His mother's Southern grace charmed everyone, including Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who invited her home for what Miss Lillian called "a nice, family time." Said Mrs. Gandhi: "I am deeply touched."

The highlight of Lillian Carter's trip was a four-hour pilgrimage back to Vikhroli, the town near Bombay where she served as a Peace Corps nurse a decade ago. "I can't wait to kiss everybody," she said on arrival. Old friends greeted her as Lily behn (our sister Lily), and schoolchildren sang, danced and even performed yoga exercises in her honor. At the dispensary, a former patient told her that his asthma was better. "Of course," teased Mrs. Carter. "I cured you." As she moved from one patient to another, she murmured, as if to herself: "I feel like an angel, but I know I'm not."

Remembering that she loved Indian sandals and could not buy them in the U.S., her friends presented her with 50 pairs, from which she chose two. Garlanded with lavender flowers, Miss Lillian was almost overcome. "I never knew you thought so much of me," she told the crowd. "I'm so excited that I had forgotten that Jimmy was President. I didn't even care. The first time I came here, I walked so much it seemed like a thousand miles. But I give you my word, I was happier walking here then than I am now in the President's plane."

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