Childhood Trauma Pt. 2

For the next three weeks after the attack, young Ellen White lay in a virtual coma. The significant blood loss had also adversely affected her respiratory system, an ailment that would burden her for the rest of her life.

Unable to continue with school because of the injury’s ongoing medical complications, this bright student’s formal education had been ended abruptly. Her mother became her teacher and the fields around Portland her laboratory.

Amazingly, Ellen refused to resent this trauma that would present her with so many hardships. Indeed, it might have rendered her useless were it not for a deep faith in God and resilient spirit.

She wrote nearly 50 years later, “The cruel blow which blighted the joys of earth was the means of turning my eyes to heaven. I might never have known Jesus, had not the sorrow that clouded my early years led me to seek comfort in Him.”

Related Topics

• What was the political and social environment like for Ellen?

Next: Her Religious Experience