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If there's one thing Mike Bucher has learned in life, it's this. Sometimes the most insightful life lessons can come from the most heart-wrenching tragedies.

Bucher, an ordained pastor, and part-time Top Fuel drag racer, learned early on just how cruel life can be. He also learned at a young age how tragedy sometimes has a purpose, no matter how brokenhearted the situation might leave him. 

Bucher was only 15 years old and the heir apparent to his father Jim Bucher's Top Fuel cockpit when suddenly he fell ill and died. Then the kid going to drag races since he was three days old watched as his hero left him behind and his future shattered in pieces. 

"I remember my aunt shaking her head crying; she's waking me up saying, 'The doctor did all he could," Bucher recalled. "I'm like, 'What? He died?" 

Bucher remembers running through the house screaming at the top of his lungs, "Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!"

Bucher became bitter, angry, and hated death. He admits that he never had a clue that arguably one of the worst days of his life would lead to an understanding of true love. A random visit to a church service would change his life forever. 

The kid who had lost his hero gained a new hero, the likes of which no earthly human being could match. 

"I heard about receiving Jesus, and I did," Bucher explained. "A peace and a joy came into me that changed me forever. And I met the only person who conquered death. And my first thought was, 'The whole world needs to hear this. Especially the drag race world." 

Little did the kid who wore a Howard's Cam t-shirt with big blue letters emblazoned on it, "Jesus is Lord," knew one day he would need to draw on every ounce of that faith to endure one of the greatest tragedies no parent should ever experience. 

Sunday will mark the first Father's Day since the loss of his daughter Abigail, his eighth of 14 children, who passed on September 20, 2022, following a brave battle with leukemia. 

Sunday would have been her 26th birthday. 

"You're not supposed to see your kid's grave site," Bucher said.

From the day Abigail entered this earth, Bucher said she lived up to her name's meaning. Derived from the ancient name Avigail, Abigail is formed from the word ab, meaning "father," and the Hebrew root g-y-l, meaning "to rejoice." Abigail possesses an array of possible meanings, with "my father's joy" being the most enduring.

Naturally, her middle name was Joy. 

Bucher said each of his children's names were given with meaning, and he can give you the meaning of each one of his children. 

"What God was teaching with Abby and all my kids, she was the most bubbly, laughing, and very much did things for me," Bucher explained. "Most of them gravitated toward Mom, which is fine. But Abby just did a lot of stuff for me. She really was her name. What are the odds of that lining up like that?"

Bucher, who plans to race Top Fuel at Norwalk next weekend, said as much as he could mourn on Sunday, there's cause for celebration.

"I know she knew Jesus, and I know Jesus conquers death," Bucher proudly proclaimed. "I've talked to so many people about the Lord because of her. And I will say this. I've never had so much peace from God and comfort in my life, but I've also never walked around feeling like I could cry at any moment."

Bucher paused the interview to weep a bit.

"I learned about God being like my father because I lost my dad," Bucher continued. "But now I've also still experienced what I call the father's hurt because the greater the love, the greater the pain. I have a love for her. I miss her. I wish I could undo this. But it's because of the love that there's so much pain."

Abigail was one of the most staunch supporters of her father's racing endeavors, which Bucher said was put on hold when he said God called him to ministry in 1988. Then some 30 years Bucher took his ministry to nitromethane first as an A/Fuel Dragster racer promoting the Hope Over Heroin message and later, with an investment from Brian Corradi and Antron Brown, became a licensed Top Fuel driver just like his father. 

"He's allowed me to be out here, to be a light to point people to him," Bucher said. "If it hadn't happened [losing Dad] when I was younger, it would've been all about racing. But now it's all about ministry. The racing is secondary."

Bucher said following Abigail's passing, one of the first people he crossed paths with was Connie Kalitta, who lost his son Scott in a racing accident.

The two fathers had a moment as Kalitta offered, "It's like your heart is ripped out."

Bucher paused, "Truer words were never spoken."

As Bucher fires up his Top Fuel dragster at Summit Racing Motorsports Park, he will be reminded how much Abigail loved watching her dad drag race. 

"My first thought, when someone passes away, you realize nothing matters but people," Bucher said. "Drag racing by itself is very empty. I almost quit, and my oldest daughter Elizabeth reminded me, 'Dad, you can't quit. Abby loved the racing." 

Bucher was provided with a stark reminder when he looked through the pictures of the day he made his Top Fuel debut.

Of all his kids, one made their way to Gainesville, Fla.

"It was Abby," Bucher said. "She used to brag to the other kids. And I found this out after she passed away. They said she used to brag and say, 'I'm the most like dad of all the kids." And I didn't even know she said those things."

And as the sun dawns on Sunday for Father's Day, Bucher will be reminded of Abigail as he looks to the eastern part of the sky above Cleveland. 

"She lived up to her name, every bit of it -- fathers joy," Bucher concluded.