Christian Science was not part of my upbringing, yet soon after I was introduced to Science in my teens, it became the guiding light of my life. It helped me to overcome sickness and timidity; it made me feel protected and cared for by God.
I had been a religiously inclined child in the midst of unreligious surroundings. My father had been killed in the First World War. My mother and stepfather were good, honest people, and they lovingly cared for my younger sister and me, but they offered no spiritual guidance. It was our cook who taught me to pray, and I took it very seriously.
When I was a young adult, I was suddenly called upon to make decisions and take action. One evening, upon coming home, I found that my stepfather had taken his own life. Since Mother felt incapable of doing anything, I now was the head of the family, so to speak. I was able to live up to this new responsibility only by total reliance on God. Mother and my sister were resettled quietly, and I later married the young man who for some time had been trying to interest me in Christian Science.
