When a small child I had a fall which injured the hip and resulted in disease of the joint. This was greatly aggravated by other conditions, and for more than twenty years I was a great sufferer. I was placed under the care of skilled physicians and given the treatment then used in the hospitals for seven months. At the end of that time I was allowed to get about with an iron brace and crutches. Then followed several years when I was never quite free from pain, and notwithstanding all the careful attention of the physicians and faithful nursing, the disease progressed. A spinal trouble developed, and I became so weak that I could not move about. For twelve long, weary years I lay on my bed and reclining-chair, unable to sit upright for more than a few minutes at a time. I was taken to the Pennsylvania Hospital of Philadelphia, in the hope that they could cure or help me by an operation. The surgeons did not think that I could endure an operation and advised my father to take me home and make me as comfortable as possible. Eight doctors who diagnosed my case, together with other physicians who knew me, agreed in the opinion that I could never be cured or walk. Later lung trouble developed, and my friends felt that I could not live much longer.
At this time one of God's own messengers came to me with a word of hope and good cheer, gained through the better understanding of God as taught in Christian Science. I rejected it at first scornfully, as something which might attract the ignorant and superstitious, but not educated or thinking people; but when presented to me by a refined, intellectual woman, it began to appeal to me as a beautiful theory. With loving patience and untiring persistence, she won me to see that it was not only beautiful in theory but also in its results; that it really was the Christ religion,—the same uplifting, healing truth which Jesus imparted to his disciples. It took many weeks of reading and talking to persuade me that it was the truth, but at last I was ready to lay aside the drugs which I had thought I could not live without. Some of my relatives, who had tried to gratify every wish, carried me to the Christian Science church in Scranton (of which I later became a member), and I was carefully laid across several chairs, bolstered up by many pillows, in a fruitless attempt to make me comfortable; but I suffered so much that I could comprehend very little of the message which later lifted me out of my bondage.
After having the consent of my family, who had cared for me so constantly and lovingly for so many years, I began in earnest with Christian Science treatment in the spring of 1899. Then came the most glorious experience of my life. At once the pain and restlessness gave place to a sense of calm, such as I had never known. The terrible bondage of weakness and suffering was succeeded by a sense of freedom and strength. The healing was most wonderful and to me seemed very quick.
