“No. I wish I had.”

Sabin pointed out a man standing on the edge of the gathering.

“Someone you know?” I asked.

“Not exactly. A federal agent. He came to our house.”

I looked back at Sabin. “What do you think he wants?”

He shrugged. “He told me he wanted to hear more about Abby’s message.”

Sabin had asked if I wanted to speak. I would have liked to say how much Abby meant to me and what her life had taught me and how I would miss her. But I knew I would get too choked up. I decided to let Sabin do the talking.

Sabin stepped forward and motioned to the crowd. The gathering quieted. He cleared his throat and began. “We are here to celebrate life. Not just the life of Abigail Caldwell, whose time here touched us deeply, but even more so the life that, I believe, God brought her to America to share. That is the life of God himself, given us in the person of his Son…”

He spoke for only fifteen minutes. But in those minutes he expressed what Abby had taken a lifetime, a brief lifetime, to fully realize.

When he finished, Sabin nodded to the cemetery workers, who took hold of the leather straps holding the casket and lowered it into the ground.

“Abby told me once,” Sabin continued, “that burial is a truly Christian practice. It affirms the value of the physical body in God’s plan and anticipates the day when the body will be raised and made immortal to live with God on a new earth forever. That was Abby’s ultimate hope—one I know she awaits now more than ever.”

He picked up a small handful of dirt and tossed it on top of the casket, then turned away, wiping tears from his eyes.

Afterward, everyone came up to express their condolences to Sabin and me. One thing in particular would have thrilled Abby. Sabin had mentioned the little group that she had started at his house. Several people asked him if they could join the gathering.

Sabin’s tap came two days later. On her last trip to Fort Worth, in the rush to get out the door, Abby had left her journal at Sabin’s.

“I’m not sure what to do with it, Creighton. Would you…Do you think she might like you to have it?”

Yes. I very much wanted to have it. I could have had it delivered to Dallas, but it seemed too precious for that. I went to his place to pick it up.

Riding to Fort Worth, I realized I felt a certain bond with Sabin. The two of us had become friends during the events of the past days. We would always have that.

Sabin opened the door and invited me in. The group that Abby had started was gathered in the living room: four men, three women, and Chloe.