Claire Williamson and the Fasting Cure

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Claire Williamson also suffered from stomach issues as a child. Doctors prescribed her small meals every two hours and a full meal before bed. She believed Dr. Hazard could help her, and Dora was willing to do whatever her sister wanted. At the sanitarium, Dr. Hazard told the sisters they were too weak to see each other.

In 1911, two sisters traveled to Seattle to meet a "doctor" named Linda Hazzard. The sisters didn’t seem very sick, but when they arrived, Dr. Hazzard told them they didn’t have a moment to lose – they needed to begin her treatment right away.

A few months later, one of the sisters wrote a letter to her old governess. “I am wonderfully better in fact,” she said, “getting stronger by leaps.” But her handwriting was messier than usual, and her sentences ran together and overlapped.

You can find Gregg Olsen’s book, Starvation Heights, here.

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