The phone rang at 4:30 in the morning. On the other end was a panicked mother who said that her daughter, clear across town, was standing at the kitchen sink with a bottle of sleeping pills in her hand. She had called her mom to say goodbye permanently.
The mom went on to ask if I would pray. (I was brand new at the healing practice of Christian Science, and she had chosen Christian Science treatment to help her deal with this problem.) I assured her I would and hung up the phone.
Then something akin to terror set in. I was so groggy from being awakened that I didn’t think to ask the woman for her name or phone number. “What if my prayers aren’t effective? What if the daughter goes through with her plan?” The “what ifs?” pounded me. In those days there wasn’t caller ID, and there was no way I could call back. I felt stuck. And scared.
