Year-long Depression

Ellen White was fifty-four years old when her husband died. They had been married thirty-six years. Rarely have married people endured so much together; rarely has a married couple accomplished so much of lasting significance. It is understandable that she felt that “the light of her home” had gone out when her husband, “the tired warrior,” died. ^{25Letter 9, 1881, cited in Manuscript Releases 6:307; Bio., vol. 3, p. 172.} At the funeral she spoke for ten minutes on the Christian’s hope. ^{26Testimonies for the Church 1:110.}MOL 472.2

Ellen White grieved, freely speaking of her aloneness. But she was never despondent. One week after the funeral she spoke for fifty minutes in the Battle Creek church “with great clearness of mind and strength of voice” on the uncertainty of life and the privileges of a Christian. ^{27Uriah Smith’s editorial, The Review and Herald, August 23, 1881.} After a few months’ rest in Colorado, she resumed her remarkable schedule of writing and speaking.MOL 472.3