It was a busy night at the nightclub and restaurant where I was performing, so much so that the floor had been temporarily filled with tables. The crowd had thinned out by the third show, and the tables were cleared off. I was the opening act: I played the violin while I danced. As I did my first high kick, however, my foot slipped and I fell. I severed my sciatic nerve and could not walk or stand, the pain was so severe. After many medical conferences, the case went to court, and the insurance company awarded me lifetime support.
I was sent to live with my mother in Cleveland. One day my mother asked the next-door neighbor to sit with me while she went shopping. The neighbor walked in the first day and told me that God didn't make me to lie down. God made me upright, and Christ Jesus said to take up your bed and walk.
I thought she was "wacko." First, I had been to one of the biggest specialists in the field, who had told me that I would never walk again. And second, the mention of Jesus was taboo in my mother's house, since we were Jewish. I was very uncivil to my neighbor and told her that I didn't appreciate her opinions, and so forth, especially when she brought in a book to read that had a cross on the cover.
