But the Whites, with two of their children, survived, as did most other families with the pioneer spirit of the nineteenth century. Throughout most of her long life Ellen White did her own sewing. At one time she wrote: “sheets and pillowcases and my clothes are in good order.” 5Manuscript Releases 5:430 (1874). MOL 102.5
On a late November day, 1865, in Rochester, New York, she penned a note to James: “Last night was a cold night. I dreaded sleeping alone in a cold room, but my nice warm nightdress was finished and I put it on and it was real comfortable.... My sewing is going off bravely without my taxing myself at all.” 6Manuscript Releases 10:27. MOL 102.6