By 1980 I was beginning to feel the financial, family, and social impact of widowhood, and it had me very unhappy. I had to leave Arkansas, where I had made a good life and friends, in order to find suitable employment. My house was sold, and my two daughters were away at college.
After moving to Chicago to live with my brother, I found a wonderful job. During this period of life I noticed a soreness in one of my breasts. Sometimes the soreness was uncomfortable, but most of the time it was throbbing. Suddenly I realized the condition might be more serious than I’d thought. A few years earlier the wife of a prominent New York politician had undergone major surgery for breast cancer, and the media spared few details when reporting on it. The fear it generated among the public lasted a long time.
While I had no idea what the condition was that I was facing, I wanted to maintain a peaceful thought, and I didn’t want any fears expressed to me about what it could be. God had helped me many times before, and I knew He was helping me now. I quickly found this psalm in the Bible: “In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me” (Psalms 56:4). I felt that this was God’s promise to me and I would take Him at His word. So, every time I felt discomfort, I mentally went to God, my protector, and affirmed the truth of that verse, always expecting my prayer to be answered. I was quickly relieved of any suffering.
