At one time I was suffering from a severe and persistent illness diagnosed as undulant fever by our family physician. I also had an ulcer, colitis, and lifelong anemia, for which I was being treated medically. I was taking over twenty pills a day and, for the increasingly severe anemia, receiving liver shots every two weeks. I felt miserable most of the time, and was haunted by a terrible fear that I would not live to raise my son, who was then four years old.
A new friend and her husband had bought a house across the street. They expressed such joy and peace that I was drawn to ask her which church they attended. When she told me that they belonged to a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, I began to bombard her with flip questions about Christian Science. She wisely lent me a copy of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, and said that she would be happy to answer any questions after I had read it.
I'll never forget reading the first chapter, "Prayer," and thinking that this was what I had always wanted to believe, but I never had felt there was any authority for it. The realization that God was ever present and that He loved me set the groundwork for what led to the complete healing of all the illnesses mentioned above.
