SHORTLY AFTER the Civil War, my great-grandparents went West in a covered wagon, and homesteaded on the Kansas prairie. Their three daughters found Christian Science in the late 1800s and never ceased in their love of this truth, or their expression of it. The middle daughter was my grandmother.
It was she who early on became my "dear one." Her daughter, my mother, could not and would not consider her mother's faith. But grandmother saw to it that I had the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy—and I loved what I read. I knew that some day I would be a Christian Scientist.
When I was eleven years old, the rope of my swing broke and I fell some distance, landing on my stomach on a concrete sidewalk. There was no apparent external injury, but it soon became evident that I was not well. The family doctor told my parents I had a severe heart condition, could not attend school, and must stay home in bed. Shortly before Christmas that year, when the problem had not yielded after several months, even the doctor said that his prescription and staying confined to my bed weren't helping me. So one afternoon, I actually went to town by myself to do some Christmas shopping.
