"I had a `right' to feel self-pity," she says. Within the space of a year she lost her child Robin; her father died; and she came down with a crippling illness. An inner ear infection with serious complications gave her double vision, a queasy feeling like seasickness, blackout spells, dizziness, and the inability to walk a straight line. Lying in a hospital room overlooking Forest Lawn Cemetery, she watched the black hearses and had morbid thoughts about death--of her loved ones and herself.

She improved enough to go home, but she was still far from well. And her mood hadn't improved at all--in spite of her strong religious faith. "My despondency was at its worst," she said.

Then one day the telephone rang. It was a friend saying that her two-year-old baby had drowned. Since Dale had recently lost a child, said the friend, she thought Dale could offer some help. Could she come over and talk?

Dale forgot her depression and dizziness, and made her way to her friend's house. After offering comfort and understanding, she noticed that something strange had happened. "As I left their home that day," she said, "some of my own physical symptoms seemed lessened. I walked a little bit straighter, carried less of a weight upon my soul."

It was the start of her own recovery.

That's faith in its fullest dimension. It is a relationship with God and neighbor. When either relationship is neglected, the tree begins to wither and die. The happiest people in this world major in both! There is hope for us. That hope is in loving God and loving our neighbor.

Ron Newhouse