Guest column/The Fred Abdalla I knew was a stalwart member of our community

Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla was many things to many people -- a lawman, a community figure, sometimes a controversial one.

But to me, he was something simpler: A guardian. There's a painting of him in the Jefferson County Courthouse, standing beside a child, and I can't think of a more honest picture of who he truly was.

The nation once saw headlines and chose to turn the sheriff into a caricature, a villain to fit an outsider's narrative. But those of us who lived here saw the truth. We saw the man who came into classrooms for D.A.R.E., who fingerprinted children for safety, who taught us about stranger danger. We saw the sheriff who wept after removing children from broken homes because he carried their pain as if it were his own.

Fred was also there at some of the most important moments of my life, even if I never got to thank him.

He talked my father down in Pottery Addition, choosing life when others might have chosen force. Years later, when I stumbled at 21, he appeared in court, put his hand on my shoulder, and told me: "This is your one and only grace. Make the best of it." He saw the good in people even when they couldn't see it themselves.

Fred lived in the gray space between strict judgment and mercy. Sometimes he brought the full weight of the law, other times he offered grace -- but always with reason. He judged people not only for what they did, but for what they could still become. That balance is why some misunderstood him, but it's also why he left such an indelible mark on those of us who truly lived under his watch.

The Fred Abdalla I knew wasn't a headline or a meme. He was a sentinel, a stalwart, a man who defended this community for decades. When I see his painting in the courthouse, I see more than art. I see the truth.

I see my Fred. And I hope Jefferson County remembers him not for rumors or controversy, but for the decades he spent as our protector and our friend.

(Castner, a Steubenville native and graduate of Steubenville High School, has worked in EMS, transportation and writing, and values the heritage of the Ohio Valley.)