Who is Jean Davis from A Severe Mercy and what is their importance?

Jean Davis, or Davy, is the woman Van loves, and is herself an eager and artistic fellow explorer with Van. She is remembered by everyone she encounters in her short life as flowing with selfless and generous love and good humor, as well as loving all things musical, artistic, and meaningfully poetic. She admires above all else, however, Christian devotion in the friends she meets, having followed Van whole-heartedly into the Christian faith following a long time of conviction, pain, and searching. She ends her life praying selflessly, wrestling with God for an entire night that if she is going to be sick, that she be given one more year for her ministry with the students, and that her life be taken in exchange for Van's soul. She is such a beautiful representation of the character of Christ that the hospital in which she spends the majority of her illness will not accept payment after her death, since she did more for them than they could ever do for her.