The spring of 1940 brought a special anxiety to me because my family had remained in the Channel Islands after our summer holiday in 1939. It had seemed unwise to bring them back to London in view of the Prime Minister's warning of air attack, but small houses in the country were very difficult to find. A friend who was a Christian Science practitioner assured me that divine Mind would guide me to a right decision.
As the Channel Islands seemed likely to be attacked, it came to me clearly that immediate action was necessary, and I telegraphed my family to return. Within forty-eight hours a furnished bungalow about twenty miles outside London had been secured, and a suitable school was found within a distance of half a mile. As my family were quietly departing from the Channel Islands, plans for the emergency evacuation of large numbers of inhabitants were being carried out, and within a week or two the islands were occupied by the enemy.
The achievement through Christian Science of a new outlook on life in itself constitutes an event for which I am profoundly thankful, but in addition there have been many healings and other blessings. I had been a smoker for twenty years and had no wish to give up the habit, but the references in Mrs. Eddy's writings to smoking must have made an unsought impression on me, for the habit suddenly left me, and from the morning nearly twelve years ago when I forgot to light the usual first cigarette of the day I have had no desire for tobacco.
