This testimony is written in gratitude for Mary Baker Eddy's great love for mankind as shown in her wisdom and foresight in establishing the Church of Christ, Scientist, and its many activities.
I was a very frustrated sixteen-year-old girl without any hope of leading a normal life, including school attendance, marriage and children, or a career. There were many physical difficulties that had been medically diagnosed as incurable, along with the prediction that they would become progressively worse and I would be a helpless invalid before forty. I could not walk without crutches and a brace attached to a high-top shoe with a two-inch sole, nor could I sit without pain. Rest was required several hours a day to maintain strength. Any exertion caused a severe cough.
When I was a small girl, my grandmother had given me a copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mrs. Eddy. I began to read it when I was in my teens. A neighbor, seeing me read it, invited me to attend the Christian Science Sunday School. A friend took me to Sunday School regularly, and there I began to feel the assurance that God is unchanging Love, tenderly caring for every detail of man's existence. The coughing stopped. The public school authorities admitted me to high school on a part-time basis, which required rest during the gym hour. At the end of the first year I was permitted to take a full schedule because I had been able to keep pace with the school program even though I was still using the crutches and brace. Many times my Christian Science friend reminded me that I must recognize that I need not continue to accept the medical diagnosis, since divine Love alone is the source and condition of existence.
