After an automobile accident I became very ill: I lost nearly forty pounds, could neither sleep nor eat, and was in constant, unrelenting pain. As a class-taught Christian Scientist, I never doubted that Science could and would heal me as it always had. Throughout my childhood and young womanhood I had many wonderful healings. Usually I called on either my mother or a Christian Science practitioner to help me, and through the support of their prayer the problem was always solved.
But this time the situation was different. My parents had passed on, and the several practitioners I'd engaged at different times gave me wonderful support, but the physical condition remained unchanged. In fact, I seemed to be deteriorating rapidly, and during many long nights was tempted to believe that only death could relieve my suffering.
My family was becoming extremely fearful, for they could see no benefit in my radical reliance on Science and strongly pressured me to have a diagnosis. For months I resisted this pressure because I had no faith at all in material medicine as a means to genuine healing. I knew I could not believe as irreversible fact anything a medical diagnosis might tell me. And moreover, I recognized that trying to mix material methods with spiritual would only lead to confusion.
