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Julie
Abby was Stella’s older sister who died in a cliff jumping accident a year before the start of the novel. When Abby was alive, she was Stella’s biggest comfort and support. It seems that part of Abby’s motivation for practicing extreme sports was to live the kind of life Stella would never be able to. Abby always took Patches, the stuffed panda, on her cliff jumps and recorded her dives for Stella to experience vicariously. Abby also used to stay with Stella through difficult procedures and surgeries and sing an old song from their childhood to help Stella relax. Stella feels survivor’s guilt because she always expected to die before Abby, and Stella worries about whether Abby was in pain when she died. Stella meets Abby in a vision when she passes out after falling through the ice over a pond. In the vision, Abby assures Stella that she died peacefully, and that Stella should move on.
Abby Grant Quotes in Five Feet Apart
The Five Feet Apart quotes below are all either spoken by Abby Grant or refer to Abby Grant. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1: Stella Quotes
It’s not like I don’t want to go. It’s just, quite literally, a matter of life or death. I can’t go off to Cabo, or anywhere for that matter, and risk not coming back. I can’t do that to my parents. Not now.
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I close my eyes and take a deep breath, hearing the familiar wheeze of my lungs trying desperately to fill with air through the sea of mucus. Exhaling slowly, I slap a big Hallmark-greeting-card smile on my face before opening my eyes and pressing the enter key to go live.
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Lying back, I pick up the worn panda resting on my pillows and wrap my arms tightly around him. Patches, my sister, Abby, named him. And what a fitting name that became. The years of coming in and out of the hospital with me have certainly taken their toll on him.
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Chapter 5: Stella Quotes
He stops, leg floating off the edge. One more step and he would have fallen. One more step and he would have…
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Chapter 9: Stella Quotes
“You ever think about, I don’t know…traveling the world or something?” I look back down to see number 27, “Sistine Chapel with Abby.” No line through it.
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Chapter 11: Stella Quotes
Even before they knew me, they did their very best to help me feel like Saint Grace’s Hospital was my second home from the moment I got there. But, of everyone, it was Abby who really did that. She gave me three invaluable gifts that day.
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Chapter 13: Stella Quotes
A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.
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I see Abby, right there in front of me, blurry at first and then as clear as day. My dad’s curly hair, and her larger-than-life smile, and her hazel eyes identical to my own.
“…more…time…”
She’s pushing me away from the light.
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Chapter 14: Will Quotes
Stella’s been taking care of all of us. Her mom, her dad, me. I keep counting down to eighteen, to being an adult, holding the reins. Maybe it’s time I actually acted like it.
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Chapter 18: Will Quotes
I think about that very last breath. Sucking for air. Pulling and pulling and getting nothing. I think about my chest muscles ripping and burning, absolutely useless. No air. No nothing. Just black.
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Chapter 19: Stella Quotes
“She’d make a wish and she’d never, ever tell me what it was. She used to joke that if she said it out loud, it would never come true.” The tiny pinpoints of light twinkle in the distance, calling out to me, as if Abby is out there now. “But I knew. She wished for new lungs for me.”
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Chapter 21: Stella Quotes
“I never even hugged him. Never. Don’t touch! Don’t stand too close. Don’t, don’t, don’t!” I scream out, hysterical, coughing, dizzy. “He was my best friend and I never hugged him.” And I never will. The feeling is so horribly familiar, I can’t stand it.
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Chapter 25: Stella Quotes
I take a deep breath, letting out a relieved sigh that I’ve been holding for more than a year now. My chest heaves suddenly, and I begin to cough, water pouring out of my mouth.
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Abby Grant Character Timeline in Five Feet Apart
The timeline below shows where the character Abby Grant appears in Five Feet Apart. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Stella
...she sits alone in her hospital room, looking over old photos and drawings that her sister Abby brought for her. Stella’s best friends Camila and Mya come to visit her at...
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Chapter 4: Will
...she seems now. The video shows Stella singing at a charity performance her dad and sister put on. Will is shocked to see that the video has 100,000 views. He tries...
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Chapter 7: Stella
...deflated lungs. It has the caption, “Just breathe.” It reminds Stella of the drawings her sister Abby used to make for her.
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Chapter 9: Stella
...can draw Stella. Stella goes through her “master” to-do list with Will. “Sistine Chapel with Abby” is on the list, but it’s not crossed out yet. Will says he wants to...
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...posts of her friends in Cabo. She opens a folder of pictures and videos of Abby, and watches a video of Abby bungee jumping off a bridge. In the video, Abby...
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Chapter 10: Will
...it under her door. She videocalls him when she sees it, and Will asks about Abby’s artwork in Stella’s room. Stella gets angry and hangs up on him. Hope and Jason...
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Later, Will meets Stella in the gym. Abruptly, he asks if Abby is dead. Stella cries, angrily, as she explains that her family was always expecting Stella’s...
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Chapter 11: Stella
Back in her room, Stella remembers when Abby left on her trip to Arizona. Stella was supposed to go, too, but she had...
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Abby was the one who introduced Poe to Stella on her first day in the hospital....
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Chapter 12: Will
...upset and scared Stella is. He realizes that this will be her first surgery without Abby. Will has an idea to make Stella feel better. He sets an alarm for early...
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Chapter 13: Stella
...Stella’s shock, Will sneaks into the pre-op room wearing scrubs. He starts singing the song Abby used to sing to Stella before all her surgeries—"A Bushel and a Peck.” Will tells...
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...from 10 as she breathes in anesthesia. She notices that Will somehow pinned one of Abby’s drawings in the operating room. It’s a drawing of a healthy pair of lungs bursting...
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Chapter 15: Stella
...her room, he’s left her a handmade paper flower bouquet that matches the flowers in Abby’s drawing.
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...sees her parents again, and they apologize to Stella for how they have acted since Abby’s death. Stella is shocked to see them being nice to each other, and they assure...
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...In the hall, Poe tells her that it’s for the best. Poe compares Will to Abby—they’re both risk takers. Stella yells at Poe, saying that he is afraid of being in...
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Chapter 18: Will
...after death. Will thinks that death is simply the end, but Stella doesn’t accept that Abby is simply gone. She tells Will that Abby broke her neck and drowned, and Stella...
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Chapter 19: Stella
...same lights when he goes up to the hospital’s roof. Stella says that she and Abby used to go see the lights together every year. Abby used to make a secret...
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Chapter 25: Stella
...she sees stars. She reaches out to take someone’s hand. Suddenly, she’s dry. She sees Abby next to her and hugs her. Stella asks if she’s dead, and Abby says she’s...
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Chapter 27: Stella
...and Will. Stella’s parents and Will all plead with her to take them. Stella remembers Abby (in her vision at the pond) telling her to live. So Stella agrees, and she...
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Chapter 31: Stella
...like she’s starting a new life, though she knows she will never get over losing Abby, Poe, or Will. Stella’s parents got back together. Stella is at the airport with Camila...
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