THE SWIM TEAM MOMS who sat at my kitchen table were amazed. They came to see the miracle for themselves. Word had spread that I'd been in a car accident, which resulted in severe head injuries and a back broken in two places. One team parent who worked at the hospital where I'd been taken told his wife that things were so bad she might not see me again. Four weeks after the accident I was healed.
It was inconceivable to family and friends that I'd signed myself out of the hospital, declining conventional medical treatment so I could go to a Christian Science nursing facility. My husband and sons reassured everyone that this decision was sound—and consistent with my usual approach to challenges—which meant I would rely solely on God through prayer for healing. I'd been a student of Christian Science my entire life, worked as a Christian Science nurse, and now worked as a Christian Science practitioner praying for others. I knew exactly what I was doing.
Miracle was the term family and friends used a lot over the next few months as word of the healing spread. It seemed magical or mystical to many. Truthfully, I never thought of this healing as a miracle in the way that Webster puts it from the Latin "a wonder, marvel": "an extremely outstanding or unusual event ... " (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 2002). Healing had always been the outcome when I relied on the divine laws of God.
