Sixteen years ago I was in the depths of despair and felt the future held no promise of improvement. For seven years I had been a semi-invalid because of heart trouble. My education was interrupted because of this physical difficulty, and when I tried to study again at the state university I had a relapse and was obliged to spend several months in bed. The attending physician's verdict was that I should never be able to live an active, normal life. He also said that I needed an operation, but that it would be a difficult one to perform because of the heart condition.
Several years before this, when I was visiting a relative who was interested in Christian Science, I read the first chapter in our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. The thought came to me then that if I did not recover under medical treatment I might be healed by Christian Science. When at last I became utterly discouraged, I remembered that thought, and I began to wish I knew a Christian Scientist who would tell me more about Science.
Mrs. Eddy tells us (Science and Health, p. 1): "Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer." This was proved true in my experience, because a Christian Scientist who had recently come to live in the same apartment house began visiting me. I did not know at first that she was a Christian Scientist, but I noticed that I always felt better when she had been with me. At the right time this friend was led to talk to me about Christian Science, and I was so encouraged by what she told me that I dismissed the physician, with my father's consent, and started having treatment from a Christian Science practitioner.
