Owen Cauldwell was a very cheerful person. A jolly happy soul if you will.

Owen was one of those wonderful people who found joy in the simple everyday things: music, food, cheer, laughter, hot showers, and when he could get it, pleasant weather.

Owen was the type of person who savored every last bite of turkey on Thanksgiving, every last lyric of Holly Jolly Christmas during Christmas season, and even every last nanosecond he could sit outdoors on his lawn chair on a nice spring day.

Cheer and joy were also Owen's attitudes towards life. He would make comments like, "Don't lament what you don't have, but enjoy what you do," and "Forget the bad times and absorb the good times."

It was an attitude that served Owen well, especially as a man who wasn't wealthy, but didn't have any serious problems in his life either.

In fact, Owens's favorite holiday was Thanksgiving. He loved the simplicity of Thanksgiving being about family, food, football, and taking time to pause and appreciate what one had and the people who made one's life what it was.

This was much more up Owens's alley than the much more elaborate celebrations of Halloween and Christmas and the loudness of the Fourth of July and New Year's.

Yes, Owen Cauldwell had always treasured the simple joys of life.

But, even for someone whose life peacefully revolved around enjoying and appreciating simple pleasures, there were still moments of greater and more significant joy that stood out.

It was now a little before 10 A.M. on Thursday, November 9th, 2006, and Owen was sitting in a waiting chair in a lobby as he had an appointment for an eye exam that day.

As he waited for his eye exam, Owen suddenly saw something in his own mind.

In his mind, Owen had an image of what looked somewhat like an eye chart.

But, instead of the big E and other letters typically used on eye charts for eye exams, the letters on the chart on Owens's mind spelled a word:

ABIGIAL

And, with a rush of fierce joy, Owens's brain went to work quicker than a calculator.

He was due to become a father in two weeks.

With any luck, his daughter would arrive on Thanksgiving.

He hadn't given any thought to the process of naming his daughter.

Up to this point he had only been focused on what a joy it would be to become a father.

But, at seeing this image of the word ABIGAIL, Owen knew without realizing how he knew it that Abigail HAD to be his daughter's name.

And then, Owen remembered what Abigail meant.

The name Abigail meant father's joy.

For Owen, a man who valued joy above all else, his greatest joy was the joy of becoming a father.

Owen knew that the greatest joy he would ever feel in his life would be the moment that he held Abigail for the first time.

Eventually, Owen had his eye exam, which went pretty routinely.

But it was what he saw in his own mind that ended up being the most significant part of that trip to the eye doctor.

Owen had found the perfect name for his daughter.

And he would get his storybook moment as well.

Abigail came into the world at 2:52 A.M. on Thanksgiving Day 2006.

As Owen held her for the first time, he just felt free, light, and joyous.

Nothing else in the world mattered at this moment. Only a father's joy in holding his newborn baby Abigail.