When I first came to Christian Science I was practically a hopeless, helpless sufferer. I had not been able to walk for fifteen years and a half, nor had I been able to use my eyes during that time. The last time I had walked was to the operating table. My weakened condition was the result of an illness and an eye-strain some two years previous. The physician we called to prescribe for me assured us that an operation would restore me to health. My husband and I consented to the operation, but afterwards we found that I had been badly injured instead of benefited. Physicians told me I should never again be able to walk, one predicting that I should have malignant growths.
From that time I was never free from pain, and was confined to my bed or couch the greater part of the time. The condition of my eyes, however, caused me greater suffering; and after the operation the diseased condition increased until I lay in a darkened room for months. Eye specialists said I had a complication of three diseases, one of which was astigmatism in its worst form. They said that an operation might help me if it proved successful, but we would not consent to one. I was taken to different hospitals, and conscientious physicians did all they could for me, but I received only temporary relief.
For years I had prayed that God would lead me to something or someone that would heal me. I finally went to the home of my sister, who was a Christian Scientist, living in another state. She asked me to try Christian Science, and I consented to do so. I could not endure the light in the room, so the practitioner and others read to me while holding the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy under the drawn window shade. I would try to remember sentences that appealed to me, repeating them over and over, and trying to accept and realize the truth they contained, until my room seemed like heaven, illuminated day and night. I would awaken in the night with a song of rejoicing. I did not want to see or talk to any visitors.
