Testimony of Healing March 3, 1980 Issue

As a child of five, although I did not understand...

WRITTEN FOR THE SENTINEL

As a child of five, although I did not understand what was happening at the time, I was sexually abused on two separate occasions. Both of the men who molested me were people in our neighborhood. My family never learned of the first incident, but the second time, a neighbor walked in while it was happening. She made so much noise, screaming and crying, that I became very frightened. The young man was taken into custody, and the case went to trial.

Owing to changing circumstances, I went to live with another member of my family, who may have known about the second incident but never spoke of it. I grew up feeling that I was a perverted, evil child, and I never mentioned the unpleasant episodes until I became a young woman. Throughout these years I forced myself not to think of the awful, recurring nightmares I was having. By this time I found concentration difficult. During my school years, at the request of school authorities I was sent to several psychologists, all of whom verified my above-average intelligence. My family voiced their exasperation over what they felt was an indifference on my part to schoolwork. This plunged me into further self-depreciation and condemnation. I had few friends and seemed to live in an unhappy, lonely world of my own. I experienced lapses of memory and heard music where there was none.

After I had completed the required examinations for my chosen field, I moved to a distant city, where I was isolated from the family, friends, and culture that I had grown up with. A new friend recommended that I study Christian Science. At first I was reluctant. But the gentle persuasion of this individual, whom I respected, overcame my reservations, and I began reading the textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. This awoke me to the knowledge that something was wrong in my life, that my help was to be found in this book and the new way of life it would open for me.

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