Through a dear relative, Christian Science first came into my life when I was a young child. We lived a rather isolated life, and I learned to read Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy aloud. For two or three years the influence of Christian Science permeated my thinking.
A great change in family circumstances took us to a large city. In 1918 came the influenza epidemic. It fell to me, then twelve years of age, to care for my parents and two younger brothers. I became stricken with pneumonia and quickly slipped into a coma. My stepmother asked my father to try to contact a Christian Science practitioner. My father was very much frightened and wanted a doctor. But in that time of so much illness it was scarcely possible to get a doctor or a nurse, and he finally consented to try to reach a practitioner. Within a short time after a practitioner had been called, I fell into a natural sleep. In the morning I awoke well, hungry, and anxious to get up. However, as a family we were in troubled circumstances, and Christian Science was mostly pushed aside.
Unhappiness, poverty, and great loneliness were my lot during all of my teen years. An early marriage brought more unhappiness. We had one child. Because his father disliked children, I had to let the child stay with his grandparents. My health began to go steadily downhill, and finally my husband's family physician told me that I was very seriously ill. He advised me to go home to my child and get good medical attention or, he said, I would die within six months.
