FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KFSM) -- Adam Garner says he first met Anne Carroll Dwinell when Farmers Table Cafe in Bentonville opened back in 2006, and Anne was hired as a chef. From then on, they weren't simply co-workers, they were friends.
He is now grieving the loss of Anne. She died after her car ran off of the roadway and struck a tree on Hwy. 71 in Winslow on Sunday (May 12).
"On paper, it wouldn't seem like we would be the closest of friends," Garner said. "I'm much older than she is. She's just, in general, a better person than I am. It was like her mission to make this place a family, and she did. She loved everyone front of house, back of house."
Garner says the Farmer's Table wouldn't be what it is today without all the love and hard work Anne gave, and she will always be engrained in the fabric of their cafe family.
"Just walk back there when everybody is getting their butt kicked on a Sunday, and she's back there singing and dancing, and it just lifts your spirits a little bit," Garner said. "That's the kind of person she was. Just a great attitude and an immensely hard worker."
Police pinged Anne's cell phone near Winslow. Garner was about to help in the search effort when he got the call he had been dreading.
"The six people in cars met up there at the Winslow cell tower and just drove out from there... a couple of my friends found her," Garner said.
Although Garner, along with many other people say they are broken that Anne is no longer with them, they say they are proud of Anne's life and know that she lived her life to the fullest.
"If you could sum up Anne, its just love," Garner said. "She had it for everybody, she gave it to anybody who wanted it. It was so obvious in everything she did. From her food to her singing to her dancing. She just had a love for her it, and that's just what she was, love personified."