At the heart of Owner's Rental were two people: Joyce Stevens and her daughter Cindy McCall.
What no website or business listing could ever capture is how personal this business was. People didn't submit inquiries to Owner's Rental. They wrote to Joyce. They wrote to Cindy.
"I sing your praises to everyone I know and recommend that people list through you every chance I get. You guys do an amazing job and are so supportive. I never feel like I'm alone in this."
"They picked us up from the hotel the first day and they let us eat and sleep in their home the last day and brought us to the airport the next morning."
And then there was Make-A-Wish. In February 2004, Joyce and Cindy waived their entire commission so a child with a life-threatening medical condition could camp at the Grand Canyon with his family in a rented RV.
That was who they were. That was what this business was.
Joyce and Cindy both passed away in 2021, within months of each other.
Joyce in Her Own Words
From the email archive, March 1998 — Joyce's reaction to seeing the website Alan had built for her:
"I have had good response from the owners on the web page. They all think you did a super job."
Four days later, trying to figure out how to get linked on other sites:
"I need to talk to you about how to link. You know I am computer illiterate!"
Fifteen years later, in May 2013, after Alan rebuilt the entire site from scratch on a modern framework:
"I can't tell you how much it means to have the web site done. You have done a wonderful job. I want to pay you something but I really don't have a lot right now."
When things got hard — and they did get hard — Joyce never lost sight of what mattered:
"I have done nothing but try to build you up and make you realize your worth."
That was Joyce. Honest, grateful, completely out of her element with technology, and trusting Alan to handle the parts she couldn't. For twenty-three years, that partnership held.