In an 1898 obituary of Mary Holmes Dalton, her piercing grief over children lost to early death figured prominently: “Just why, perhaps some day we’ll understand. Those little tots were not permitted to remain long, and one by one as they grew to be a few months old, and just at the time this mother loved them more than life itself, they were taken away.”
“During all this sorrow,” the tribute concluded, “she acknowledged the hand of a kind providence in it all.”
This historical glimpse was shared by Anne Berryhill, associate historian in the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as part of a panel discussion entitled, “‘Had witnessed for themselves’: Latter-day Saint women testify of the Savior.” The panel took place Saturday near the close of a two-day conference, “‘I am in your midst’: Jesus Christ at the center of Church History,” held in Salt Lake City and sponsored by the Church History Department…