Linda Thomas writes in Today’s Woman:

I was told that John came from a well-to-do family, but because he was mentally handicapped, they rejected him. Somehow John came to our community, and Daddy and Momma took him in. John would stay with our family for a while and then go to another place. This seemed to be his life pattern. I was just a baby at the time, so I have no recollection of John during the time he lived with us.

Sometime in the early '40s, while John was in another community, he was accused of assaulting someone and was sent to Dorothea Dix Hospital, an institution for the mentally handicapped. Apparently he gave the officials of Dorothea Dix Hospital my father's name as his guardian. Through the years Daddy was one of the few people who kept in touch with John. Every now and then a letter would arrive from the hospital needing permission for one thing or another for John or just simply delivering a message to us from John.

Some years later, the state reversed the Dorothea Dix residency policies; John was sent to a nursing home in Morehead City. By this time my father was in poor health both physically and mentally. His condition resulted in his moving to a local nursing home. Our family requested that John be moved to the same home, and he was. At this point, Daddy was more mentally deficient than John. John, then, took to overseeing Daddy's welfare. In our daily visits to see Daddy, we always found John's wheelchair right beside Daddy's. If Daddy had a bad day, John let us know it. If Daddy needed anything, John was his greatest advocate.

For all those years Daddy had befriended this man who was a ward of the state. Little did any of us realize that God would use John Sabiston to be Daddy's guardian angel during his last days on earth.