A Wedding In The Family

W. C. White, like his father before him, had been pressed into service for the developing church almost beyond his capacity and time. From his early youth he had been involved in responsibilities of the publishing work, the health work, the educational work. His personal life, and such things as courtship, marriage, births, deaths, and family life had been wedged in between meetings, appointments, conventions, and travel.WV 318.1

Now at 40, a widower, he was president of the Australasian Union Conference and chairman of the locating committee for the proposed school at Cooranbong. He had a room in his mother's house and devoted as much time and attention to her as could be worked into his busy schedule.WV 318.2

On a recent visit to the Bible school in Melbourne he had noticed 20-year-old May Lacey and admired her. May had been at the Bible School for three terms and had developed her talents, giving Bible readings and visiting. She also played the piano and organ.WV 318.3

W. C. White encouraged his mother to bring May Lacey into the home in May Walling's place. “I have employed her,” wrote Ellen White to Edson while she was at Cooranbong, “and she fills the bill nicely.” She commented:WV 318.4

I soon learned why Willie was anxious for May Lacey. He loved her, and she seems more like Mary White, our buried treasure, than anyone he had met, but I had not the slightest thought when she came to my home.... You will have a new sister in a few months, if her father gives his consent. She is a treasure. I am glad indeed for Willie, for he has not had a very happy, pleasant life since the death of Mary (Letter 117, 1895).WV 318.5

W. C. White had seen May on only brief occasions when he was “at home” between meetings and conventions. So it was an utter surprise to her when he proposed that she become the mother to his motherless daughters now living in America. When Willie had left the United States to come to Australia, he had expected that the stay would be limited to not more than two years, and much of that would be in travel, so he had left Mabel, 4, and Ella, 9, in his home at Battle Creek in the care of Miss Mary Mortensen.WV 318.6

May could not give her answer to Willie's proposal on such short notice but agreed to make it a subject of prayer and conditional on solving several problems that she felt stood in the way. When these were resolved, plans for the wedding were made.WV 318.7