The Laughing Prophet

May Lacey married Ellen White’s son, Willie, in Australia. What was it like to be the daughter-in-law of a prophet? In an interview with her in 1968, shortly before she turned 95, she recalled one incident:

I wish you could have seen her one day in 1900. On our way to the United States from Australia, our ship was stopped at the island of Samoa. The little boat that took us from the ship to the land couldn’t go all the way in to the beach, so local men waded out to help us ashore, as we were wearing long dresses.

The natives of Samoa, you know, were hefty fellows who didn’t wear too many clothes. Two of the men clasped their hands together, making a chair with their arms, and carried Mother White to the beach, where she sat on a large rock.

Another man took my four-month-old daughter, Grace, in his arms and held an umbrella over her to shelter her from the sun. Then he motioned for me to get on his back. So I scrambled onto his back and wrapped my arms and legs around him, and off we went. Mother White laughed so hard at this sight that she couldn’t stop. She laughed until she fell off the rock.