My earliest experience with Christian Science came when as a young girl I was away on vacation in the company of some students of this Science. I had an attack of asthma, from which I had suffered for many years, and relief came through the work of these friends. Although I acknowledged the beneficial effects at that time, it was not until some years later that I began the earnest study of Christian Science.
After World War I, my brother-in-law, who had been healed of tuberculosis by Christian Science treatment while in an Army hospital, put his wartime copies of the Bible and Science and Health into my hands with the remark that they would help me. Several months after I began to read and study, the country was swept with the so-called influenza epidemic. My husband, our son, my father, and I were all stricken. Much of the time I must have been delirious, but between times, as I heard those around me laying down medical laws, I would deny them with the simple truths that I had learned. One statement that I overheard was that in the case of an expectant mother the doctors were not able to save both mother and child. This I refused to accept as true. When I was sufficiently recovered, I was told that my husband and my father had both passed on. Although the doctor and nurse were prepared for hysteria, I asked for my books. From that moment I became an earnest student of Christian Science and thereby found God. Six weeks later, when my baby daughter was born, the birth was harmonious and the child normal.
During the years that my children were growing up, including their college years, Christian Science met our every need. During this time there were many physical healings. One of these stands out particularly. My young daughter was very ill with a high fever. As I sat at her bedside praying and working to replace the evidence before me with the truth that man is spiritual and perfect, I saw the child suddenly manifest a change, and touching her hand, I found that whereas she had been hot with fever, she was now cool and normal. The healing had been instantaneous. Another healing, one which gave me courage to be steadfast, was one of diphtheria. As my two children and I were ill, a member of my family called in a physician, who pronounced all three cases to be diphtheria. When I refused to have an antitoxin for either myself or the children, the physician left. This was the first healing we had through radical reliance upon Christian Science treatment. All three of us were healed and later released by the Board of Health, which had been notified of the condition.
