For many generations on my father's side our family had been plagued with hereditary recurrent nauseous headaches. At least one in each generation had had these headaches as far back as anyone could remember; and by the time my two brothers and I came along, the fear of the symptoms made their appearance in one of us almost inevitable. Even though my father had been wonderfully healed of the difficulty in Christian Science, the fear that one of us would be afflicted persisted and evidently was not sufficiently resisted, because I began to manifest the symptoms at an early age.
I suffered a great deal and at rather frequent intervals during my teens, but the healing prayers of my parents were always able to overcome the attacks for me. I was grateful for their help, but felt very dependent on them. In fact, it was not until I was well along in college that I was able to demonstrate any degree of self-sufficiency in the practice of Christian Science. Then I slowly began to develop the necessary confidence to stand on my own feet metaphysically. This was an important milestone, but only the first on the road to my eventual healing, because the difficulty continued.
Sometimes I could handle the attacks myself, but frequently I had to call a Christian Science practitioner for help. Encouragement was as necessary as the physical release from pain. Each attack was followed by long periods of despair and discouragement; but I always found encouragement and hope in these words of Mrs. Eddy's (Science and Health, p. 63): "In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry. His origin is not, like that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor does he pass through material conditions prior to reaching intelligence. Spirit is his primitive and ultimate source of being; God is his Father, and Life is the law of has being."
