Hope Allison Dabney was born in Tallahassee, Florida, but called so many places home over her 26 years of life: Miami, FL; Charlotte, NC; Waterloo, IA; St. Louis, MO; Claremore, OK; Covington, LA; Warrenton, VA; Florence, SC; Auburn, AL; and most recently Macon, GA, where she worked as a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst at RiverEdge, working with adults with disabilities. She attended Lincoln Christian School in Tulsa, where she was the salutatorian of her class. She graduated from the University of Tulsa with honors in 2019 and earned her Masters of Science from Auburn University in 2021. War Eagle! 

 

Hope was a gymnast, a reader, a singer, a pole vaulter, president of her sorority, a dog-mom, co-captain of the cheer squad, a bread-maker extraordinaire, a Francophile, a travel enthusiast, a fierce Auburn football fan, and hundreds of other things, but her favorite title was Drew’s Favorite Sister, to her elder sisters’ chagrin. 

 

Drew’s autism inspired Hope at an early age to dedicate her life to helping people with autism. She had recently finished the fellowship that sent her to Macon and would have eventually gone back to school to earn a PhD and work in autism therapy. Fluent in French, she dreamt of moving to France and pioneering autism therapy in Europe. 

 

Hope was a joyful child, and grew into a joyful adult. Wise beyond her years, she was a natural leader. She was happiest with her books, and loved supporting Gottwalls, a locally-owned bookstore in Macon. 

 

Hope was first diagnosed with melanoma in December 2016, and within a matter of weeks underwent two surgeries to remove the cancer. Unbeknownst to her or her doctors, the melanoma had already escaped into her body, where her immune system successfully fought it off for six years. In the fall of 2023, it came back in the form of very aggressive lesions that had spread through her entire body. She fought it bravely until Jesus called her home in the early morning hours of January 25th, 2024.