Christian Science came to me at a time of great need. For about three years I had been suffering with what the doctors called a tubercular joint, and I had walked with the aid of crutches for about a year. I had good, honest, conscientious doctors, who tried to help me, and they did all that mortal man could do. Yet I grew worse all the time. They said an operation might retard the disease, but the eventually the limb would have to be amputated. I objected to the operation for some time, for I was told that it would leave the knee-joint stiff; but I finally consented, for I suffered much and hoped it might give some relief from pain.
At this time we were living on a ranch some distance from town. One day a friend, a neighbor, called and said that she heard I was going to a hospital for an operation and asked me why I did not try Christian Science first. She said it would do me no harm, even if it did me no good; but she felt sure it would help me if I would do my part. I told her I knew nothing about Christian Science, but had heard that if you say, "You are not sick," you are not. She said that was not Christian Science. She then asked my husband if he would object to my trying this Science. He replied that we would try anything that would help me. After the friend had gone, we talked over what she had told us, and in the morning my husband went to her home for the address of a practitioner she had mentioned. That evening I wrote to the practitioner asking for help. That was May 26, 1912. The next morning my husband mailed the letter. I could not expect an answer for several days. In the meantime, another friend lent me a copy of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, which I read by the hour, beginning with the Preface. There was something I could not describe that held by interest. I forgot everything around me. The pain had gone, and that night I went to bed and to sleep at once, and did not waken until seven o'clock the next morning, surprised that I had slept so soundly. This was the first all night's sleep I had had for nearly three years. I was very weak, but had no more pain.
A day or two later, when I was alone in the house, I was in my room getting some fancywork out for the day. When I had that ready, I reached down for my crutches, but they were not there. I felt unable to walk without them, so by pushing a chair and holding to the side of the wall, I started to look for them, and found them in another bedroom. I had no recollection of walking from one bedroom to the other without them. Still I did not think of Christian Science as having helped me. I had not heard from the practitioner up to that time. I picked up Science and Health and read for a long time. Another day I lost my crutches in the same way, and believed that I could not walk when I found I did not have them.
