Even though I was very frail, I began to teach in a rural school before I was eighteen years of age. The doctors predicted that I would have a nervous breakdown, and in a few years their predictions came true. After I had had many months of pain and sleepless nights and was starving, they gave me only a few more weeks to live. I weighed less than ninety pounds.
At this time, a relative who had been healed of cancer some two years before gave me a copy of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. Her healing was my only knowledge of Christian Science. That evening I hurried to my room, and although I did not usually read at night, I felt that I could wait no longer to start reading this book!
The heating system was out of order; so I got into bed before eight o'clock and started reading the chapter on Prayer. I have no idea how long I read before I fell asleep, but the next thing I knew the sun was streaming in my east window. I could not remember when I had last experienced an unbroken night's rest. There was no pain, and, impossible as it seemed, I knew I was healed. I soon regained normal weight, started attending a Church of Christ, Scientist, and in time became a member of The Mother Church and a branch church.
