ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 13, 1997 TAG: 9701130075
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: TIMBERVILLE
SOURCE: WES ALLISON RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
IT'S JUST HOW HE IS, apparently. Donald Riggleman could have turned his back on Judith Ann Lister's troubles. Instead, he became her guardian angel.
Judith Ann Lister's Christmas present was the dream home she nearly lost. And the saint who brought it is a soft-spoken working man who puts his word well above his wallet.
Lister had closed on her house Sept. 6, just four hours before the raging water of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, gorged with the rains of Hurricane Fran, left her with a soggy, muddy mass of shattered wood and ruined furniture.
Everything she owned was in that house, as were her life's savings and her dreams. Now, she and her family are preparing to return.
``I haven't seen a miracle, I've lived one,'' Lister said above the grind of a floor sander in December. ``Everybody laughed at me when I told them we were going to save this house. I never doubted it for a minute.''
That's because Donald Riggleman, an area contractor who sold her the house, told her she would. When the flood filled the house shoulder-high with mud and water the same day she had signed the purchase papers, Riggleman promised to cover what insurance didn't. The bill is flirting with $20,000.
``I always believe you do unto others the way they do unto you,'' Riggleman said. He shrugged. ``I felt bad because the flood got her. I figured I could afford to help more than she could.
``I've made a good living all my life. I just believe in good, hard work and helping people. Your actions is always what talks for you.''
Riggleman, 58, is a stocky man with piercing eyes and oiled hair. He quit school when he was 12 to learn carpentry and help support his family. At 19, he went to work for a poultry processor, then made his living hauling feed and running a milk route. He picked up his hammer again in 1970.
T.W. ``Bill'' Good has known Riggleman all his life. Good co-owned Lister's house with him, and he's the foreman on the reconstruction job. ``He doesn't do any advertising, doesn't put his name on his truck. People just know him by his name,'' Good said.
Riggleman also has helped people before, he said. ``He's just easy like that. But he might not admit it.''
Riggleman explains: ``If somebody's willing to help themselves, I'm willing to help them.''
Floods spawned by Hurricane Fran caused hundreds of millions of dollars in destruction in the Shenandoah Valley and damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes. Many of Lister's neighbors, on Virginia 617 in northern Rockingham County, are still recovering.
When the unruly North Fork attacked Lister's house, the 20-inch-thick, stone shell of the 200-year-old house stood firm. But the avalanche of water, mud and trees mangled the interior floors, walls and windows. The outer walls to the laundry room and kitchen - wooden additions to the main house - were smashed.
Furniture, clothing, family photos and books were left soaked and stinking in the muddy yard, good only for the bonfire Riggleman set as he began to clean up.
He, Good and their crew spent two months there, virtually rebuilding the first floor from the inside out: wiring, heat, plumbing, drywall. The den and Lister's bedroom have new red oak floors. The kitchen has been rebuilt, with new cabinets and appliances.
``The man is definitely a rare breed,'' said Rob Lingeman, Lister's fiance. ``The house is going to be better than it was when she bought it.''
Lister, who works nights in the housekeeping department at Massanutten Resort, has been living - rent-free - with her fiance and her 19-year-old son in a home that Riggleman owns in nearby Broadway. They hoped to begin moving back into the white stone house by the river on New Year's Day.
``I feel like having an open house,'' Lister said. ``So many people stopped and looked when it happened. I wish they'd come back now.''
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Judith Ann Lister and her fiance, Rob Lingeman, sayby CNBthe house is better than ever.