My dad had no use for what he supposed Christian Science to be, and he argued endlessly with my grandfather. This grandfather had found Christian Science some years before, at a time of extremity in his own life, when he had failed to recover from the effects of a severe physical beating. In great despair he picked up a Christian Science Sentinel from a literature distribution rack in a railroad station. What he read changed his whole life. His physical and emotional health was restored. It was this dear grandfather who later saw to it that I attended the Christian Science Sunday School regularly from the age of three.
When I was eight our family car was struck by another on an icy highway. During our third day in the hospital where we had been taken, the nurses brought my very active younger brother into the room my mother and I had been sharing. They kindly explained that they hoped he would serve as a healthy diversion to my mom. Because of a severe head injury, I had shown no sign of consciousness, and I was not expected to live. The medical opinion was that if by some chance I did live, I would be without any mental activity.
In these hopeless circumstances, when my patient grandfather asked, "Will you try Christian Science now?" my dad replied honestly, "Well, it certainly can't hurt anything!" A Christian Science practitioner in that city was contacted. She agreed to treat me through prayer and came to the hospital. Before she arrived her prayerful work was effective. I distinctly recall waking up and recognizing that we were in a strange place. We asked to be promptly released from the hospital, and in two weeks I was back in school. My parents, in gratitude for this healing, began the study of Christian Science. They wanted to understand the laws of God that had so completely reversed such dire predictions. They loved what they learned, became active church members, and had many healings through applying the teachings.
