My first knowledge of Christian Science came when I was a girl of fourteen. At that time my older sister had been told by specialists that she would be blind in a few-weeks and would never see again, as there was nothing that could be done for her type of eye affliction. Christian Science treatment was given, and in six weeks she was reading without the aid of glasses. Today after more than forty years she still has good sight.
She and I were enrolled in the Christian Science Sunday School, and although I went more or less regularly for several years and accepted its teachings as true, I did not make them my own. Through the years, while working at my profession and traveling, I often went to church and occasionally studied Christian Science, but I did nothing definite about putting it into practice, though times without number I felt its beneficent influence. However, when after an operation for an advanced case of gall bladder and liver trouble I became a bedridden invalid, I turned completely to God.
The doctors had given me less than a year to live and said that I would be in bed until the end. We had a neighbor who was a student of Christian Science and who had previously recommended that I turn to it for healing, but I was not ready to listen then. When the doctors' verdict had been pronounced, in desperation I had my husband call this neighbor and ask if she could get a practitioner for me. She was happy to do so, and treatment was started.
