‘So you knew Mitch when she was with the Rainbow Children?’ I asked.
‘That’s right. We shared a room many a time.’
‘And you’re still friends?’ Jo asked.
‘We are, but first I have to ask you, why now? Why look for Mitch now after so long?’
I quickly filled her in on the programme idea.
Rosie looked thoughtful. ‘Ah, so you want to contact her for your series?’
‘Yes and no,’ I replied. ‘It started out that way. I came up with the idea to make a series about looking for friends because I’d been thinking about them, the importance of maintaining contact with the good old ones and realizing that I’d lost touch with mine. That led me to getting back in touch with Ally and Jo. We were all close at school, and Mitch was one of our gang too.’
‘I think she might be hurt if she thought the only reason you were getting in touch was to make good TV,’ said Rosie.
‘I agree. We agree. Exactly what we thought and, in fact, we have just told the producer that. I don’t care about the TV programme; no, that’s not true, I do. I’ll be presenting it and I still feel passionate about exploring the theme of friendship, but we won’t use the search for Mitch as part of it. It’s started to feel too personal now.’
‘We just want to reconnect,’ said Jo. ‘I want to talk to her about some of her experiences in meditation when she was with the Rainbow Children. When she used to tell us about it all, I didn’t get it, but I think I do now.’
‘Why’s that?’ Rosie asked.
‘Sounds mad. I had a near-death experience recently, out of body into the tunnel, into the light. I’ve never felt such peace.’
‘Sounds amazing,’ said Rosie, ‘not mad at all. I’ve read a lot about people who’ve had similar experiences.’
‘It sure shifts your perspective on things,’ said Jo. ‘I remember Mitch saying she’d experienced a light when she was meditating. I always thought she meant the light of clarity, but now I realize she saw actual light.’
‘Me too,’ said Rosie. ‘Not every time I sat to meditate, but enough times to know that there is an energy or force inside all of us and it makes you feel very peaceful to connect with it. But we were striving for much more than that. The idea was that the more people who felt peace in their lives, the more peaceful they would be in their everyday lives and so it would spread.’
‘Why was the movement called the Rainbow Children?’ I asked.
‘Rainbows are a universal symbol for peace and harmony, and that’s what the group was all about,’ Rosie replied.
‘Is there anything left of the group?’ Ally asked.
‘Not really. It all dissolved around 1976. Some followers tried to keep things alive but it had lost momentum. I still meditate and use a lot of what was taught – kindness and respect for others and the planet, and we still do what we can to promote awareness of climate change. So much of it was good common sense, but a lot of us realized that we never really knew the teachers behind it all. They were always at a distance from us, like rock stars: tiny figures on a stage. Who knows what they were like in their private lives.’
‘I went to one of the meetings,’ said Jo.
‘You did? And?’ asked Rosie.
‘I liked what they were saying, but didn’t think you had to live in a commune as Mitch chose to.’
‘You didn’t. Only a handful, couple of hundred, maybe more, chose to live in the communes in the UK. That’s where Mitch and I met. We recognized each other as kindred spirits from the off, but the members in the communes were only a small percentage of the overall followers. Most people carried on normally and incorporated the teachings into their daily lives and, like me now, probably still do on some level.’
‘I felt there were other groups saying very similar things,’ said Ally. ‘The Rajneesh, the maharishi, the Hare Krishnas; back then there were so many gurus around, all saying we have to look inside to find peace.’
‘Absolutely. We weren’t saying anything new, just trying to work towards a kinder, more caring world, and it’s interesting to see how much of it has become more popular now – like mindfulness, eating fresh organic food, caring for the environment – all the stuff we were into.’
‘I just want to see Mitch again,’ said Ally. ‘See where’s she been and, of course, let her know that her daughter’s been looking for her.’
Rosie looked shocked. ‘Daughter? What daughter? What do you mean? Looking for her?’
‘She has a daughter, Lisa,’ said Ally. ‘Didn’t you know?’
Rosie looked stunned. ‘No. She never said anything about a daughter. Now I’m confused. Maybe my Mitch is a different one to yours. How old is Lisa?’
‘In her forties. We didn’t know about her either, until recently. We discovered that Mitch had a daughter who she gave up for adoption, probably just prior to joining the commune. She wants to meet her mother and has been looking for her.’
‘Are you sure? She never told me, never breathed a word.’ Rosie didn’t say anything for a while. ‘What about the father?’
Jo filled her in on what we knew about Jack and the timing of his death.
Rosie let out a deep breath. ‘Wow, that’s so sad. I knew about her family, her sister, and even about you three. I thought I knew everything about Mitch, but clearly not.’ She was quiet for a few moments as she took in what we’d told her. ‘What you’ve told me explains a lot. In some respects, Mitch wasn’t like the rest of us back then, in that some of us, many of us, in
