JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT, and there I was lying in the middle of the floor. I had crawled out of bed in great physical distress and did not want to get up. A few days before, I had become ill and unable to care for myself. (My family was out of the country.) A dear friend had kindly brought me to this local Christian Science nursing facility where I could receive in-patient nursing care. Although the ailment had not been diagnosed, I later thought that it might have been a case of severe food poisoning.
When the Christian Science nurse found me sprawled out there on my back, she was surprised but very calm and asked, "Wouldn't you rather be in the bed?" Deeply discouraged I cried out, "No, I just want to stay where I am and die." I felt my situation was hopeless. But the nurse neither accepted the death wish nor the hopelessness. With persistent, gentle encouragement, the nurse convinced me to get back into bed.
The next morning my condition continued to be disturbing and frightening to me. At one point when a nurse came in, I was on the floor again, this time the bathroom floor. "Wouldn't you like to be in a more comfortable spot?" she asked. I felt mentally quite out of it. I simply didn't care. I just wanted to give up. So I shot back at her, "No! I don't want to be in another spot." But she didn't accept this answer, either. Instead, she patiently guided me to a chair.
