120 I The Breeze of the Spirit

ten minutes, then John spoke: “What are you thinking?” “I’m praying,” I replied. After a long pause I heard him ask: “May I pray with you?” And that of course was the start of the big change and of my own private miracle. We prayed together—for each other, for our marriage, for our children—and affection began to be rekindled.

Life at home gradually became more normal and by autumn there wasn’t a cloud in John’s sky. My own sky remained cloudy but there were bright intervals. As winter came, I realized I, too, was truly happy—unexpectedly, joyfully, with husband and children thriving.

The two of us were now driving ten miles or more every Sunday morning to listen to a clergyman, a “spiritual man” Yager had told us about. We loved being together this way on the first day of the week. Thanks to this “church home,” Christmas and New Year’s Eve that year were the best and holiest holidays the family had ever enjoyed, and the two months which followed was the happiest period of our whole marriage.

But my story is in two parts. In March came the tragedy which God was preparing me to meet. Early that month John began to have headaches, but because he’d always been strong and healthy we ignored them and he left town on a business trip. A week later he came down with a fever in New Orleans and ‘phoned me long distance to get his bed ready and meet his plane.

It was a very, very sick husband who came through the gate at the airport. He hadn’t been able to keep a meal down for three days. The doctor ordered immediate hospitalization and X-rays. When John’s fever went up to 105 degrees, the doctor diagnosed him as dangerously ill with a brain tumor.

This frightened me terribly but I knew what to do. I was in my own home and I simply got down on my knees and prayed. And then an event took place—so mysterious, shall I say so supernatural ?—that I was overwhelmed and knew that I had been uplifted as well as calmed and strengthened. It was incomprehensible, yes, and glorious. It seemed as if God had entered the very room.. . and placed hands on my forehead. And His unforgettable message was this: “Don’t worry. I am with you both. Everything will be all right.” After a little while I sat on the bed and telephoned John’s relatives to come immediately, and then I went off to sleep soundly.