Article March 13, 2006 Issue

FROM RUIN TO RENEWAL

Faced with financial and emotional shock, I took the Bible and Science and Health in my hands once again.

BY ELKE DE MACO

After my divorce from my first husband, I decided to rebuild a new life with my little girl in my former hometown near Hamburg. I bought an apartment filled with light and warmth, in a series of row houses. I began a new job as a licensed practitioner of natural medicine, and hoped to start a practice in my apartment. According to house rules, I had to have a written agreement from the co-owners of the row houses, but my legal advisor told me that as a freelance worker, I didn't need to have the approval of the other seven owners. So, I began to work from my apartment.

One year later, I met a man who gave me new hope of building a family of three with my daughter. Suddenly, my life was good again. I was successful in my profession and doing very well financially. Moreover, this man told me that he had a lot of money abroad. We began to buy a lot of things. I was always the one who had to pay for everything, and he'd tell me he would pay me back.

One morning several months later, the police rang the doorbell and arrested him for nonpayment of debts and fraud he had committed before we met. Then I began receiving requests for payment on purchases he'd made under my name. I used up all my savings and had to take out a long-term loan to repay the debts.