In my childhood my life centered around home, school, and church activities. I was reared in a religious atmosphere as well as one of materia medica. I grew up with the conviction that God had put me here to serve others in His name, and I set about to prepare myself by participating in every way possible in the various activities and study groups of the orthodox church of which I was a member. It was my desire to become a medical nurse that I might be able, in some measure, to help and comfort the sick and sorrowing. Because of my interest in music, my father had great hopes that I might choose a vocation in the field of music.
When I was sixteen years of age, something happened to shatter all our dreams. I was stricken with a fever and was in a semicoma for several weeks. The doctors diagnosed the condition as encephalitis. When the fever left me, there was not an organ in my body that was functioning normally.
My father spent much time and money taking me from doctor to doctor hoping to find one who could cure me. During the ensuing years, I was enabled to live a semi-active life by following the recommendations of many doctors; these included various drugs, sedatives, physiotherapy, and electrical and shock treatments.
