As Memorial Day approaches, the families of past and present military service members are left to think about their loved ones.
But one U.S. nonprofit is thinking about America’s military families 365 days a year, especially in their darkest hours.
Fisher House Foundation, based in Rockville, Maryland, is on a mission to care for the loved ones of military service members who have been injured or perished in active service by providing free lodging across the nation.
Fisher House began in 1990 when it was brought to the attention of Ken Fisher’s uncle, Zachary Fisher, that there was a “very basic yet underappreciated need” for military families to find housing while their wounded loved ones received treatment.
“There were people sleeping in their cars,” he said. “People would come into the hospital lobby, drop their things and run upstairs without any thought of what would happen next.”
“It’s a very simple mission — but a very vital mission.”
Since its beginnings, the Foundation has attempted to “accommodate the growing need” by continuing to provide modernized “comfort home” stays for as long as the hospital stay dictates, Fisher said.
“When families walk in, they can’t believe that they’re staying in this kind of environment,” Fisher said. “They expect a hotel-like environment that’s very cold.”
“They are embraced by the other families that are staying there,” he went on. “So each house becomes its own community, [which] forms a support system. And this support system is where the family healing starts.”
The Lexington VA Fisher House is a 16-suite comfort home in Lexington, Kentucky, at the Franklin R. Sousley VA Medical Campus. The new home was completed in late 2022 and will soon begin serving veterans and their families. (Fisher House Foundation)
Fisher detailed how families have the option to shut their doors and have privacy as they would at a hotel, but they are also welcome to seek the company of other house members.
“They can come down and sit in any of our common areas, which are the lifeblood of the house, and can sit and decompress with the other families,” he said.
“This support system is where the family healing starts.”
A bedroom inside the Columbia VA Fisher House located at the Wm. Jennings Bryan Dorn VA Medical Center Campus in Columbia, South Carolina. (Fisher House Foundation)
“The American people have embraced Fisher House in a way that I’m not sure any one of us ever thought possible, especially after 9/11,” Fisher went on.
“But as the military-civilian divide started to widen, we made it one of our mission points to narrow that divide by bringing the plight of the military family to light.”
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“Behind every man or woman who wears a uniform is a family,” Fisher said.
Fisher House families speak out
Gold Star mother Toni Gross was particularly impacted by the Fisher House Foundation after her son, U.S. Corporal Frank Gross, was killed while deployed in Afghanistan in 2011.
(Gold Star families are those who have lost a loved one in military service.)
Gross, of Tampa Bay, Florida, told Fox News Digital in an interview how her only son followed his family’s military heritage by enlisting in the Army in 2010. He was stationed in Fort Hood, Texas, before being deployed.
The Gross family was invited to attend the dignified transfer of Frank Gross at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, where they were escorted to the Fisher House for Families of the Fallen.
The Fisher House Foundation had such a profound impact on Gross that she decided to become a volunteer herself.
She has served at her local Fisher House at James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital in Tampa, Florida, for the last 10 years.
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Gross considered her service to be “good medicine” that helps with her own healing.
“It’s part of my healing journey to be able to serve proudly at my Fisher House,” she said. “I could never repay what the Fisher House has done for me personally.”
The meaning of Memorial DayÂ
The Fisher House Foundation was the first to provide a space for Gold Star families to stay while repatriating their lost loved ones, according to Fisher.
“As we come into Memorial Day, it’s so important for us to remember the sacrifices made by the 3,700 families that went through Dover, or the families that didn’t go through Dover that lost a loved one in battle, that lost a loved one while wearing a uniform,” he said.
Army Maj. Patrick Miller, now a lieutenant colonel, was wounded during the 2009 Fort Hood shooting. His family stayed at the Fort Hood Fisher House while he recovered, according to the Fisher House Foundation. (Fisher House Foundation)
Fisher said he regards Memorial Day as “one of America’s holy days,” not just a day to hit the beach or have a barbecue.
“Since I was handed the folded flag, Memorial Day has taken on a different meaning for me,” she said. “It will never be the same.”