The home in which I was reared was filled with deep religious faith, and my early memories are of church and prayer. This faith was somewhat shaken, however, by constant illness and a feeling of inadequacy during my early married life, and I found myself asking if there was a God.
About this time my husband accepted a position in a distant city, and on the way there our two-year-old son was taken ill with influenza. The next month was very trying and left me tired and ill. Recurring attacks of facial neuralgia became more frequent and severe. A physician whom we called at that time said he doubted that anything could help me unless I could have a complete rest for a year or more. We discovered that he was prescribing morphine to ease the pain, and I refused to take this; so the situation seemed hopeless.
At this time I met a woman who expressed so much kindness and so much unselfish interest in me and my family that when she told me she attended the Christian Science church, I wanted to know something about her religion. I soon asked her if there was any literature that I could read on the subject, and she brought me a copy of the textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, and some of the periodicals. As we were talking, our eldest son came in complaining of toothache.
