During all my life our family had been subject to all sorts of ills, such as colds, tonsillitis, grippe, fevers, malaria, typhoid, quinsy, severe headaches, liver trouble, and many other ailments. A neighbor once said he thought we hired the doctor by the year, he came so often and so regularly!
In 1919, when I first knew of Christian Science, I had been a medical nurse for a number of years and was filled with great fear regarding what the future held in store for me. When alone I would walk the floor and wring my hands and cry, saying: "Oh, my God, what shall I do! No one to care for me and no place to go, and the doctors can do nothing for me!" Both my parents and my husband had passed on some years before.
Then it was suggested to me that I try Christian Science. I was directed to a Christian Science Reading Room, where I was told I could borrow the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. I began to read, and as I read every breath was a prayer, "O God, if there is anything in this book help me to get it!" My prayer was not eloquent, but God knew the desire of my heart. I can never tell how kind, how loving, how beautiful every word in that precious book seemed to me. It did not tell me of a God afar off, but it told me of a God ever present and omnipotent. I read on and on, so anxious to know what the next page had to say about the God who is good, and who does not send sickness to His children. After I had read almost continuously for a week, and without the aid of a practitioner, I was healed of many ills, among them constipation, stomach trouble, tubercular bronchitis and throat trouble, a very bad form of eczema, and severe headaches. I was also healed to a great extent of self-pity, discontent, and fear of being alone in the house.
