Lilian Elizabeth Wyss, the first Bahá’í to bring the teachings of the nascent Faith, passed away in the country of her birth on 20 April 2023.

Laid to rest at Allambe Memorial Park in Nerang, Queensland, Australia. Her funeral service was held on 28 April 2023 and was attended by many Samoans residing in Australia. A memorial service in her honour will be held at the Bahá’í House of Worship in Samoa on Sunday 14 May 2023.

Born in Sydney, Australia on 2 July 1929, Lilian was exposed to the horrors of a war-torn world and grew up during the Great Depression. She was still a junior youth when she learned about the Bahá’í Faith and started to investigate its teachings. Her parents had been Catholic but did not mind what religion their children wanted to become members of. 

Lilian was very service-oriented and by the time she was in her early teens, she was already teaching children’s classes at the Presbyterian church on Sunday mornings and at the Methodist church in the afternoons. As a young girl, Lilian had many questions about religion, questions that went unanswered by her religious instructor.

Lilian and her brother Frank became Bahá’ís at the Yerrinbool Baha’i Winter School in 1944 and they were referred to in a letter sent soon after their declaration as “enlightened youth” by the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, Shoghi Effendi.

It was in December 1953, when Lilian commenced her life-changing journey to Samoa, thereby becoming inscribed in the Roll of Honour as a Knight of Bahá’u’lláh, an accolade awarded to Bahá’ís who arose to open countries to the new teachings whose principles revolved around the three fundamental verities underlying the Baha’i Faith: the unity of God, the unity of His prophets, the unity of mankind.

She flew by seaplane from Sydney to Auckland to find passage on a ship to Samoa. She attended a Summer School in Auckland and met her husband-to-be, Suhayl Ala’i. Traveling to Samoa on the Matua, a two-week ocean voyage that took her through Fiji, Tonga, and Niue, she arrived in Apia on 14 January 1954.

In 2004, at the 50 th Anniversary of the Bahá’í Faith in Samoa and the 20th Anniversary of the Bahá’í House of Worship opening, Lilian spoke about the early days of her time in Samoa.

“In the early 1950s life was very different to what you see today. A seaplane, which went on to Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, landed on the lagoon at Faleolo once a month and of course on its return from Aitutaki. It came from Fiji. 

"There was just a very small building for immigration and customs. If you arrived by ship in Apia you were rowed ashore. Wherever you went in Samoa there were paopao or outrigger canoes lined up on the shoreline. There was a partially sealed road that lead to Apia and at night people often sat on the road and played their ukuleles and sang. The few import/export businesses in Apia had trading stores in some of the villages. There was very little electricity, mainly in Apia. 

"Most of the homes were Samoan fale. And there were two cargo/passenger vessels each month. The main income was from copra and cocoa. When Suhayl and I married we lived on top of the only bank. There were some cracks in the wood of the floor so you could see something of what went on below. One day the bank manager sent one of the staff up to ask me to stop washing the floor as the water was dripping onto the bank notes!

"You know when you place yourself in God’s hands you are always protected and assisted. The day I arrived I obtained a position as private secretary to Mr. Ted Annandale, the General Manager of the well-known trading firm of O.F. Nelson and Company.

"I had no idea who he was or who the people were who worked there. But believe me, they took very good care of me and taught me the essentials of Samoan custom, and watched over that single young lady from Australia! I did not know that a number of them came from prominent families. An example of their kindness was that when some of us attended a special party they would always make sure that I had a non-alcoholic drink that looked the same color as those who were drinking alcohol

"Within the first six months, I found myself in hospital with double pneumonia – in the tropics! It seems I was unconscious for some time and I will never forget the look of deep concern on the face of Ted Annandale when I awoke. I don’t know how long he had been standing there. It touched my heart. Then I developed Hepatitis in the hospital – I was bright yellow. When I was able to leave the hospital, Ted and Sina Annandale took me to their plantation to recuperate. They showered such love and kindness on me."

In a letter addressed to the national Bahá’í governing council of Australia, the Universal House of Justice referred to her many decades of service including as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Samoa and American Samoa.

Lilian remained at her post until December 2010, serving the Faith in the archipelago that she dearly loved for almost six decades. She is fondly remembered by the Bahá’ís of Samoa and American Samoa and by many of her friends of all Faiths in these islands.