Nine-year-old Jack Lewis was devastated. He felt that God had ignored his prayers when cancer claimed the life of his mother. He would later realize that he lost not only his beloved mother but, in a sense, his father as well.

Jack's father, Albert Lewis, was deeply affected by the death of his wife and never recovered from the blow. In his anguish, he spent very little time with his grieving sons, Jack and Warnie. Never again would they experience the happy family life they had once taken for granted.

This event had a profound effect on the boy who would grow up to be one of the best-known Christian authors and teachers of the twentieth century. His mother's death destroyed the security and tranquility of Jack's world. While he would still catch fleeting glimpses of joy, the settled happiness of his universe had disappeared, and it would be many years before it would be regained.

All My Road Before Me
Even before his mother's death, Jack was a reclusive child. When he was seven, his brother and best friend, Warnie, was sent to boarding school in England. Jack had always loved to read, but with Warnie gone, he tried to combat his loneliness with books. Rather than seeking other friends, Jack immersed himself in literature. In his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, Lewis recalled, "There were books in the study, books in the dining room, books in the cloakroom, books (two deep) in the great bookcase on the landing, books in a bedroom, books piled as high as my shoulder in the cistern attic." Nothing he wished to read was denied him, so Jack quickly became a voracious reader. He also wrote and illustrated his own stories, creating a world where animals talked and knights still wore shining armor.

Spirits in Bondage
Jack was clearly an extraordinary child. If his creativity manifested itself at an early age, so did his intellect. But his reasoning skills, combined with a deeply ingrained pessimism, led him away from God. His pessimism increased when his mother died, but Lewis later said that the seeds were sown even before he lost his mother. He viewed the universe as "a rather regrettable institution," and it dissatisfied him to think it could be the work of a loving, all-powerful God. When presented with other options--theosophy, spiritualism and the occult, to name a few--his Christian faith began a slow descent into atheism that would continue for many years.

Present Concerns
In 1916, Jack was granted a scholarship to Oxford's University College, and he began his studies the following spring. However, a few months after his arrival at Oxford, he enlisted in the British army. While in officer's training, Jack shared a room with Edward "Paddy" Moore, and soon the two were fast friends. Before his departure to France with the Third Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry, Jack made a promise that was to have a significant impact upon his life. Paddy Moore was concerned about what the future would hold for his widowed mother and his sister if he was killed in combat. Jack promised that he would look after Paddy's family if Paddy failed to return from France.

Jack spent several months fighting in France before he was wounded in the Battle of Arras on April 5, 1918. Discharged from the army later that year, he returned to Oxford only to discover that his friend Paddy Moore had indeed been killed in combat. Jack took his promise to Paddy so seriously that he found a house to share with Janey and Maureen Moore, Paddy's mother and sister, to better look after them. Several years later, Jack and Mrs. Moore purchased a house near Oxford, which they called "The Kilns." A few years later, Jack's brother Warnie joined them, and Mrs. Moore lived with the Lewis brothers for over thirty years until her death in 1951.