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by Major Lynn Rodal –
In this day of employee complaints, customer complaints, and just plain complaints from people, it seems unusual to find an employee who loves his work.
The Bakersfield ARC had such an employee. Allen Leon Rainwater truly loved working as a production assistant. He loved the men in the center. Though he had not gone through our program, he had had, in the past, some of the problems faced by our men. He loved driving the truck and the adventure of each day as he drove the route. He loved the people he met, and they loved him. We even received letters thanking us for the nice man who was so polite as he picked up their donations.
This year was to be a great year for him. We were making plans for his marriage to Stacey Loper. God had another plan. On May 6, 1998, when Stacey dropped by his house, she found he had died in his sleep, from a heart attack. He was 37 years old.
When his family came into the Center to plan the funeral, the one request they made was to keep one of the blue shirts with the Red Shield on it, so they could bury him in it. They said that he loved his job and the work that we do so much that it only seemed right that he should be forever in that uniform. He was buried holding pictures of his family, and one of his truck. We miss Allen and the joy that he brought to Bakersfield ARC.
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