On New Year's Day Miss Marian Davis, who was with the Youth's Instructor staff in Battle Creek, joined the Whites in Texas to assist them in literary work. At the time she was not well, but she had some of the skills they badly needed. “Marian ... is splendid help” (Letter 4, 1879), Ellen White wrote Willie and Mary a few days later. Thus began a close personal and working relationship between the two women that was to continue through the next 25 years, until Marian's death in 1904. Now Ellen White was able to forge ahead with the preparation of personal testimonies. WV 189.4