After a spring break from college, a group of us were returning to the campus by automobile late one night. At the summit of a hill, an intoxicated driver who was on the wrong side of the highway driving about eighty miles an hour crashed into our vehicle. The point of impact was near the back seat of the automobile where I was asleep. My only memory is of being in what I learned subsequently was an ambulance and repeating aloud, "God is Love."
My mother was called by the college officials and flew to be with me the following morning. She was met by members of the hospital staff with the dire prediction that death was fast closing in and that, among other things, I needed an immediate transfusion because of severe internal hemorrhaging. My mother, being a Christian Scientist, had always relied on prayer for healing. She asked whether the doctors could guarantee her my life. The physician's response was that he could not. It came clearly to my mother that the answer, as always, was to rely on God—the true Physician. Her response to the medical staff was that we would rely on God. My father, not a Christian Scientist, fully supported reliance on prayer.
A Christian Science practitioner had been called to pray for me immediately after my family had been notified of the accident. The practitioner was praying with my family.
