I was in hospital being given a blood transfusion. There and then I vowed to myself that I would be fit and well again one day.

I was not going to die, I wanted to live for our children—see to it that I was there to help my husband in bringing them up. We had wanted children for years—they were only five and seven. And this was the first time they had ever been out of my sight. My husband looked haggard and worried. The children were confused because they weren't used to having all the different people and home helpers looking after them.

And there I was lying in hospital, fighting for my life. I had been there nearly six weeks. At first, I was told I was too weak for an operation. But then the surgeons came in and said they had decided to do an emergency hysterectomy because I had life-threatening complications.

I'm happy to say that ten days later I did walk out of the hospital. Little by little, I managed to take over the care of my family once again. But I was not in good shape, having lost my original strength and health. Still, I didn't go back to the hospital for treatment and hormone replacement therapy, because while I was there I had reached a turning point. I had made a decision to look for an alternative method of healing.

For the next 18 months I looked into every method of healing I could think of. I even started to study the miracles of Jesus in detail. And I went to many faith healers in search of health and well being. But my mind was restless. I wanted so much to be able to do all the things I had done before, and that was not happening.

Then one day in the park I met a man who told me about Mary Baker Eddy and her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. He didn't even know I was looking for healing. I had never heard of spiritual healing before. For over a century, he said, people had relied on it to heal all types of sickness. I couldn't wait to find this book! I bought a copy—and started the most exciting journey of my life.

At the beginning, I didn't understand the language of Science and Health. But when I read the last chapter, which gives accounts of people's healings, I began to catch on to it and knew this was just what I had been looking for.

From that day I began intense study of the book. Some days I would read and study it for up to nine hours a day. I couldn't put it down. At first there were passages I couldn't understand, but I kept reading. Some sentences would stop me completely. But I would stop and mull the ideas over until the meaning was clear.

Each day I grew more confident about "living" the things I was learning. It was as if I had discovered a whole new world of Spirit. And this Spirit communicated to me, guiding and directing my thinking and awareness.

To see God as both Father and Mother was a new concept to me. It meant that men and women, or male and female, were not separate entities from God, with their own minds in separate compartments or stereotypes. Since God is the only creator, we must all share in that one divine Being, regardless of gender, with each of us having every attribute of the one Father-Mother God. So every one of us is complete already—including both the male and female qualities of God.

I looked for my connection with God. I went back to find my roots in God as my only Parent, the only cycle of Life. I discovered that this Life was changeless, without season, time, or place—always the same, constant —and I was held in this cycle of Love, forever loved and cherished.

From that point, my whole life changed. I regained my strength. I found my vigour and youth again.

At first, I had thought it was sad to have missed out on having more children, because of having had a hysterectomy. We had been hoping to extend our family. But I found opportunities to care for more children besides our own two, and I no longer felt that I was lacking something.

The hysterectomy had the effect of suddenly taking me from being a young woman, to being a woman on the verge of menopause. But my spiritual study and progress completely revitalized everything about me—the way I thought, the way I felt, my strength—and reversed all the effects of the surgery, including the hormone imbalance that resulted from it. Today I am a fit and active woman.

Spiritual healing was once a very foreign concept for me. But I have relied on it for the last 11 years, and it has not failed me. Now, it is the most natural thing in the world for me to turn to prayer for solutions.

Marta Greenwood
London, England