About twenty-five years, ago, not long after buying our first house, I became bedridden. Other family members were painting the house and doing all the chores, besides taking care of me. With help I could hobble to the bathroom, a few steps away, but the rest of the time I was in bed, and every movement of my legs and body was extremely painful. I was having treatment from a Christian Science practitioner, but there appeared to be no change.
Finally, one day my mother, who talked to the practitioner since I couldn't make it to the telephone, came and told me that the practitioner was urging me to try to get up for just a little bit. I was upset and resentful. Everyone knew I couldn't move because of the pain! But my mother coaxed me up and helped me into the living room, where I sat in a rocker, bundled up in a blanket, feeling sorry for myself. From that day on, however, I improved. I had made the effort to be obedient, albeit reluctantly. Then one day I was in the kitchen, bending down to open a bottom drawer, and I knew I was healed. Earlier I couldn't bend at all. I remember the wonderful feeling of joy and freedom.
Some years later I had another outstanding healing. Although it was not visible to others because my clothes covered it, I had a unpleasant and odorous skin condition over most of my body. I prayed with a number of truths, especially the idea of "the sweet aroma of love," which I must have come across in a periodical, since when I went to look it up in Science and Health, I found instead "Mind, God, sends forth the aroma of Spirit, the atmosphere of intelligence" (pp. 191-192).
