Mary [Andrews] was not well. Little by little she was losing strength. No longer could she work for long hours in the publishing house. She developed a persistent cough and found breathing difficult. Elder Andrews took her to a local doctor. He pronounced the dread word, consumption, or tuberculosis as it is generally called today. John asked whether there was hope for her recovery. The doctor shook his head; there was no sure cure.PPP 120.1
In September, Andrews received an invitation to attend the coming General Conference session to be held in Battle Creek. He decided to go and take Mary to the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Surely his good friend Dr. Kellogg would find some way to save a life so valuable to the work of God. Charles would remain with Elder Ings and keep the presses rolling.PPP 120.2
He wrote to the General Conference of his plans, carefully pointing out that he would be responsible for the entire cost of getting Mary to Battle Creek.PPP 120.3
Elder Bourdeau had decided to return to America, and would travel with him by the least expensive passage. There was so much work to be done before Andrews could leave Basel that he feared he might be late for the conference. By working night and day he managed to leave enough prepared material for two complete issues of Les Signes. Then he and Mary said good-by to Charles and boarded the ship for America.PPP 120.4
The General Conference session opened on October 4. Elder Andrews arrived in Battle Creek the same day. In the afternoon he spoke to the assembled delegates and the Battle Creek church members. As he pointed out various countries in Europe that now had Sabbathkeepers, the people were thrilled. They marveled that he and his fellow workers had accomplished so much in just four years.PPP 121.1
Elder Andrews lost no time in taking Mary to the Sanitarium, where Dr. Kellogg gave her a careful examination. The doctor was shocked to see how far the disease had progressed. Kindly and sadly he told John that, from a human standpoint, there was no hope for her recovery. She could not live for more than a month or two.PPP 121.2
From that day on, the devoted father scarcely left Mary’s bedside. Day and night he watched over her, doing for her everything that could make her comfortable. Dr. Kellogg warned Elder Andrews of the danger he was running that he might contract the disease himself. Nothing could persuade the father to leave the bedside of his loving, gifted daughter.PPP 121.3
On the night of November 27, Mary Andrews died at the age of 17. She was buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Battle Creek.80Not so. Mary Andrews is buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York, next to her mother and sister, Carrie, who had preceded her in death. A few days after the funeral Elder Andrews received a comforting message from Ellen G. White:PPP 121.4
“In my last vision, I saw you. Your head was inclined toward the earth, and you were following in tears your beloved Mary to her last dwelling place in this world. Then I saw the Lord looking upon you full of love and compassion. I saw the coming of Him who is to give life to our mortal bodies, and your wife and children came forth from their graves clad in immortal splendor.”PPP 121.5
Elder Andrews found the loss simply overwhelming. For weeks he was prostrated with grief. So many of his plans for the work in Europe had centered in Mary. She had done the editorial work in the office, leaving him free to visit Sabbathkeepers in various parts of Europe.PPP 121.6
Somehow he couldn’t understand why he had been called to makePPP 121.7
such a sacrifice. To a long-time friend he wrote in his grief, “I seem to be having hold upon God with a numb hand.” — Robinson, Flame for the Lord, pp. 110-112,PPP 122.1
Autograph album sentiment written by J. N. Andrews the day after Mary’s death.PPP 122.2
Yesterday morning at 4.30 my dear daughter Mary F. Andrews fell asleep in death. This child rendered me great assistance in Europe, and when we encountered privation and want she met all with invincible courage and with faith and hope. What she suffered caused her to fall by the quick consumption. She has fallen in the work at a time when her services had become of great value. Who is there that will rise up to take her place?PPP 122.3
Battle Creek, Nov. 28 1878
J. N. Andrews
—The autograph album in which this is found is housed in the Heritage Room of the Loma Linda University Library, Loma Linda, California.PPP 122.4