THE CHILD who has opened the door conveys the news: "Mother isn't here." But the caller, who has come to this home of a Christian Science practitioner in search of healing, isn't turned away empty-handed. The child issues an invitation. The visitor enters. Later, this visitor will leave, feeling well again. And the child, closing the door after the departing figure, can't help but smile. At six, she's no stranger to the healing power of Christian Science. And while this foray into the healing practice is a first, it, too, feels comfortable, even familiar. It's as though the sentiment she'll echo decades later has always been in her heart: "I can't remember a time when I didn't know I would like to be a practitioner."
Given her upbringing, perhaps it was only natural that found the practice—or that the practice found her. "I always knew Christian Science," she says. "My mother and one of her very closest friends were both practitioners. So I saw the healing—so much healing—and it just seemed to me a lovely thing to do with one's life and one's time."
Although it wasn't until 1963—after ventures in the fields of law and translation—that Dorothy was listed as a practitioner in the pages of this magazine, her childhood and young adulthood might best be characterized as clear-cut preparation for what would become Dorothy's lifework. In fact, says this Christian Science practitioner and teacher from Oxford, England, it's these lessons—lessons she learned growing up as she prayed both for herself and for others—that build the foundation for her practice today.
