When I was a child at boarding school, I was taken ill with what the doctors diagnosed as a serious disease of the heart. I was sent home and from that time was not allowed to run about, play games, swim, dance, or in any other way exert myself. The result was that I led a very restricted and rather miserable life. An aunt who was a Christian Scientist invited me to her house while I was waiting for a bed in a special hospital for diseases of the heart. I had already spent six months in this hospital, where I was kept under strong drugs constantly, and I was dreading my return there.
My aunt was very kind to me and wished to do all she could to comfort and help me. The day before I was due to leave her house for the hospital she asked me to come into her room. She made me comfortable on the bed, and after we had talked for a while she pointed to the Bible and to another book lying on a stand beside the bed. She said, "You know Christian Science really can help you if you are willing to try it." Then she left the room.
For some time I lay and looked at the books. I did not pick them up readily, because I had always criticized what I falsely understood Christian Science to be. After a while, however, I thought that no possible harm could come by simply reading the book, and so I did pick up the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. From the first line I was enthralled with what I read.
