Columbia Fisher House celebrates 1-year anniversary, Veterans and guests respond

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — The Columbia Fisher House on Garners Ferry Road has accommodated over 100 Veterans and guests since opening its doors one year ago.

Retired Marine Corps Captain James Hayes and his wife Lucille stayed at the home for five weeks while James was undergoing treatment for throat cancer.

Hayes says they were treated like royalty.

“I cannot say thank you enough for all the goodness that they have done, and for me and my wife. We live in Barnwell and we would’ve had to travel 140 miles a day for treatment, but the Fisher House erased that,” he says.

The Fisher House allows guests to experience free and comfortable lodging while receiving care from the Columbia VA Health Care System.

New Jersey resident Frances Dauria says she was able to stay at the Fisher House after her companion, who was in the Army, experienced a medical emergency.

“Where would I be if it wasn’t for Fisher House? There’s no possible way I could’ve stayed in a hotel for three weeks. And everyone, if you have any problem, they immediately make phone calls and solve everything. The staff is just fabulous,” Dauria says.

And Connie Shugart was the first guest to ever stay in Columbia’s Fisher House. Her husband, who was in the Naval Air Force, passed away in 2023 from congestive heart failure.

Shugart says she immediately felt loved and supported at the Fisher House.

“It was a family. This was our family while my husband was in the hospital. And then when he passed they grieved with us. And they made everything so much better. I just don’t think I could’ve handled what I had to go through without them. We’d been married 46 and a half years,” Shugart says.

The Columbia Fisher House is the 94th home to be built across the US with many more already in the works.