Administrator at local nursing home to retire after 43 years in Tiburon

Debbie Allen, who started working at Marin Convalescent Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Tiburon when she was 19, is retiring this week. Now 62, she’s a former roller-skate dancing champion who’s known by hospital staff and patients for skills on eight wheels. (Elliot Karlan / For The Ark)

Debbie Allen is hanging up her nametag, if not her roller skates, after nearly a half-century of service at Marin Convalescent and Rehabilitation Hospital.

The 62-year-old says she accepted a part-time gig as a caregiver at the Tiburon long-term care facility on a whim when she was 19 years old and hasn’t looked back since. Her job — which runs the gamut from bathing and feeding elderly or disabled residents to running the front office and coordinating family visits — revolves around fostering the most comfortable living environment for those in her care. Allen’s goal for the 43 years she’s worked at the hospital, she says, has been to make residents feel like they’re at home instead of in assisted care.

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