When I was a small child, our family was quite poor and didn’t have much to eat. We lived in a one-room cabin in a remote area of South Dakota during the Dust Bowl conditions of the Great Depression. My mother never expected to get out of those circumstances, but when a friend sent her a copy of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, it was as if she had been thrown a lifeline. She started reading the book and went from feeling helplessly locked in, to having new hope.
Life changed radically for us after that. We were able to move to a more prosperous community in Oregon, where Mother joined a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, and enrolled my siblings and me in the Christian Science Sunday School. I remember the teacher telling us that God was everywhere and surrounded us, which was continually comforting.
There were many healings in our family as I was growing up. When I was thirteen, I was taken to an eye doctor for new glasses. After examining my eyes, the doctor said I had a condition of the optic nerves that would eventually lead to blindness. My mother was a diligent student of Christian Science, and I know she prayed about my eyesight. No more was said about it then, and the predicted blindness never came about.
