I have waited overlong to express my gratitude to God for Christian Science and to acknowledge its healing power.
My early childhood was spent in a small town where my mother was the only person interested in Christian Science. She did not claim to be a Christian Scientist, but in young womanhood she had been completely healed in one treatment of a chronic throat trouble and of the necessity of wearing a spinal brace, which she had worn for ten years after being thrown from her horse. Due to my father's bitter opposition toward what he believed Christian Science to be, Mother did not study with any regularity: yet, she loved this healing and beneficent religion, and her denominational preference was known in our little town. Consequently, my playmates often stung me with the taunt that my mother was different from other mothers. I was in such a frequent state of hurt and anger that it was not surprising that I was frail and subject to all the ills "that flesh is heir to."
At the age of eight, I contracted scarlet fever. I was treated by our physician, who was also our family friend and next-door neighbor. Despite his best efforts, my throat would not heal. After several weeks, during which I grew steadily weaker, the doctor told my parents he had done all he could to save me, but that I had only a short time to live. I was unable to swallow solid food, and most of the time I lay in a semiconscious state.
