We had heard of Christian Science for several years from friends who practiced it, but we gave it very little attention as we always thought that to believe in this Science we would need to witness a very great healing. In spite of this, my mother and one of my sisters went from time to time to the Christian Science Wednesday evening testimony meetings and to the Sunday services, which interested them very much; but I had never attended. Later, however, I received a healing which once and for all showed me the way of Truth.
At the beginning of August, 1923, while on a holiday, I went cycling with my sister and some friends. It was rather hot, and we stopped at a farm for tea, and were a very merry party. On our way home, about six o'clock in the evening, a strange thing happened. What came over me, I do not know; and I cannot remember anything about it. My sister saw me suddenly lean over my handlebar and then fall heavily to the right side, while my bicycle fell to the left. The others all hurried to me, and, at first, thought I was dead. After the usual aid given in such cases, I appeared to revive. I was motored back to the house where my mother was, and she, too, on seeing me, thought I was no longer of this world.
When the first moment of alarm had passed, my mother and sister pulled themselves together and began to put into practice the little they knew of Christian Science. In spite of that they spent a very trying night, these two alone by my bedside. Till the next morning I vomited blood frequently, and there was also continuous bleeding from the ear. The doctor had not been able to give a verdict, but when he came back in the morning he said there was a fracture, a contused wound with complications, accompanied by hemorrhage. He told my mother that my condition was very serious and that my father should be informed at once; which was done immediately. In the afternoon I regained consciousness, having been in a state of coma for about twenty-four hours.
