It was many years ago, soon after the turn of the century, that my parents were introduced to Christian Science. Mother, suffering from a severe asthmatic condition, had been told by doctors she would not survive. She had been taken to Atlantic City by my desperate father, because the specialists of that time decreed that the air there was easier to breathe and might help ease the pain.
In the hotel, the room next to theirs was occupied by a vacationing couple, both dedicated, practicing Christian Scientists. The two couples soon became friends. To Mother's obvious need, these newfound friends offered the blessed freedom of Christian Science. They began by reading aloud to her from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy during sunny afternoons on the boardwalk. Soon Mother wanted a copy of her own and had it, with Dad reading to her from it, often till late at night. Sometime during the third month of their stay Mother threw away the fifteen or more varieties of medicine, including morphine, and left them forever. The addiction to morphine had been healed along with the asthma. Both parents became staunch, hard-working students of Christian Science. They had class instruction and actively worked in their local branch church of Christ, Scientist, for many years.
For some time I suffered from the same disease, asthma, that had originally plagued my mother. This held me back from a completely normal life. While I was able to do most things required of me in school, and later have an active business life, occasional lapses would hold me down for a short time. At every recurrence I would pray to realize my true spiritual relationship to God as His perfect image, and in a few days would return to work, feeling hale and hearty, but still afraid of the disease.
