Bertha and Henry included the valediction "yours always" on virtually every letter that they wrote to each other from their engagement in 1892 until Henry's death in 1911, nearly 1500 letters in all. In her last letter to Henry before their marriage, she wrote: "... there is another greater reason why I do not fear the future, my dearest. I believe that you and I truly belong to those "whom God hath joined together" and I am not afraid, my dearest, to promise "in the sight of God and of this company" to be yours always." As one reads their letters and comes to know them, "yours always" embodies the faith and love that Bertha and Henry shared for each other.