“I knew what was up,” he says, “but I was being hardheaded.”

He’d spent the evening at a Coast Guard gathering in Valdez, Alaska where he was feeling a little off, chalking it up to a bug he figured a nap could fix. When he woke and started for the stairs with his 6-month-old son in his arms, his left side simply stopped answering.

“My fear was dropping my son down the stairs that day when everything was going wrong,” William said. “I was afraid I would never be able to pick him up again.”

Emmeline was away on drill when the call came, an ordinary day interrupted without warning. Her husband was on the phone telling her he’d had a stroke as she told herself the emotions would have to wait. “I had to instantly shut down the emotional part and just start getting into logistics,” she said. It was more than one person should have to carry alone, and she was about to find out she didn’t have to.

Fisher House gave the Hamiltons a place to stay in Anchorage for the weeks William needed to recover. The alternative was driving five to six hours back to Valdez, through some of the most remote country in Alaska. “There are stretches on that drive where you lose signal completely,” William said. “You could be stuck for two hours with no signal. I didn’t want her in an emergency situation out there.” Staying in Anchorage meant he had the right resources he needed with occupational therapy, physical therapy, and his family by his side every step of the way.

“It’s not like you’re going to a resort and you drop your bags and go,” William said. “We could come there, we could breathe, we could relax, and just focus on us as a family. That’s the main part about Fisher House — it’s about family. Fisher House is family.”

Theresa Nedrow is part of why it feels that way. She’s the manager at the Alaska Fisher House, and she keeps track of who’s arriving, so gifts and blankets are already waiting on the kids’ beds before the Hamiltons even walk through the door. “She always runs out to give us a hug,” William says. “She’s like sunshine.”

In that hospital bed, William made himself a promise. “I made it a personal goal to be able to pick my boy up,” he said. “And to fight back as hard as I can to at least be a part of his life.” He looked over towards his family and took a deep breath before holding his head high and proud. “That’s what I’ve done. He’s going to know that his dad is there for him no matter what.”

The Brices were living in Grafenwoehr, Germany where Army Staff Sgt. William Brice was stationed as a cavalry scout. After noticing that their young daughter had unexplained bruises, William and his wife Annah sought medical advice. Three weeks later, a diagnosis was finally given – 5-year-old Adela had aplastic anemia. Because it was an extremely dangerous form of anemia, she was admitted to a German hospital and then to a cancer center to receive treatment similar to what leukemia patients receive. When she was well enough to travel, her care was transferred to Madigan Army Medical Center at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Washington.

After a short stay in a hotel, they moved into the JBLM Army Fisher House. Luckily, Annah knew about Fisher House because she had stayed at the Landstuhl Army Fisher House in Landstuhl, Germany after a surgery.

“At Landstuhl, I had surgery there, and, wow. They offered me Fisher House, and it was the best experience,” she said. “It was mind blowing, and I know things are different, especially whenever children are involved, but we were welcomed with open arms.”

At first, Adela was in the hospital until her immune system was strong enough for her to stay at Fisher House with her mom and dad. Because of her medication schedule, Annah and Adela were up early in the mornings for medication at 8 am and stayed up late to take her final medication at midnight. But, once her immune system was a little bit stronger, Annah needed to find ways to keep her very energetic daughter entertained between taking her meds.

“She’s an active kiddo. That’s for sure!” exclaimed Annah.

Thanks to donations of tickets to local attractions, Annah and Adela visited the zoo and the beach and explored Seattle. They also did crafts and worked in the Fisher House garden. One of Adela’s favorite things to do was to pretend she was on stage in the sitting room by standing behind the drapes until the make-believe stage curtain was opened.

William was only able to stay for a few weeks before having to return to Germany, so for much of the time, Annah and Adela were at the Fisher House without him.

“While I was in Germany, the Fisher House was the best place for my family. They were right next door to the hospital if they needed anything and right next door to the store if they needed anything also,” he explained. “Fisher House provided the food, there was a bus route, and there was also a taxi service. It provided everything that they needed. I felt very safe and secure having them there at Fisher House.”

Throughout the stay, Annah became close to other guests and formed bonds around the shared purpose of caring for loved ones.

“We showed up and then I became really close with Leslie. She’s awesome. Basically, all the guests I’ve become close with. It’s all one big family cooking together and stuff,” said Annah. “On one of the first nights, when there were a lot of guests, we were all inside the kitchen cooking, and we were all laughing. Everyone that was in the house was in the one room. It was fun. It was a fun time.”

“Fisher House meant everything to us,” she reiterated. “Being able to just focus on our daughter 100%.”

Kayla, a high school athlete who scored well on the military entrance exams, excelled in the Navy school for her job, fire controlman aegis. She picked Japan so that she could do her job where it really mattered, and she did great in early exercises.

“After school I was sent straight to the ship, and we had to launch a missile within a month and a half. We fixed the radar to launch the missile, and I earned a Navy Achievement Medal for our hard work. It was really cool seeing the launch and I loved it.”

Kayla’s promising Navy career was cut short when a shipboard accident and follow-on medical complications sidelined her. It started when her team was moving equipment cases weighing about 100 pounds down the ladders inside the ship. A fellow sailor controlled a box from above as Kayla Saska held it below.

“I was kind of bracing it and, as soon as I got a couple steps down the ladder, I heard, ‘Sas, I don’t have it,’” she said.

“I looked up and saw the case coming down.”

The case slammed into her, causing a brain injury, and she was pushed down the stairs and hurt her left leg badly.

The Navy sent Kayla back to the states for the medical care she needed. She enjoyed initial progress until she had a rare reaction to an iron infusion. The reaction to the iron infusion damaged some of her internal organs, leading to multiple emergency room visits and ambulance rides before doctors could figure out what was happening. As her condition worsened, she found herself needing a familiar face to support her.

“I thought I was going to die, and I called my family saying, ‘I need someone here,’” she said.

Kayla’s sister, Patricia Rowledge, rushed to her side.

“She was in and out of the hospital,” Patricia said. “I think it was her seventh time in the hospital, and my dad called me at work and said, ‘You need to get to Kayla.’”

“I think it was a matter of three minutes to where my sister was packed, ready to go,” Kayla laughed.

Patricia, an Army veteran, rushed to Maryland. When she arrived, Kayla was back in the emergency room at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. They met in the waiting room as Kayla returned for a bag and Patricia was sitting there, with a Fisher House folder in her hand.

“Some people from the house were told that I was coming, and they came and found me in the ER and gave me a folder and told me a room was waiting for me,” Patricia said.

Patricia was a fierce advocate for Kayla in the hospital.

“My sister is very stern,” Kayla said. “She gets stuff done, and of all the people to help fight for me, my friends helped too, but it was amazing having her there.”

The Fisher Houses at Bethesda gave Patricia a safe place to stay near Kayla.

“Fisher House was great,” Patricia said. “It’s like going to grandma’s house. They have everything you need.”

After an emergency removal of Kayla’s gallbladder, she eventually had to accept medical retirement. But she has returned to sports competition and represented Team Navy at the Warrior Games and Team U.S. at the Invictus Games.

“My brother was serving out in Afghanistan,” Christina said, “and we found out that his plane went down, and he and the other pilot didn’t survive. So, we were then told to go to the airport.”

Ryan was the co-pilot in an E-11A aircraft when it suffered an engine failure and crash.

During this difficult time, families have a very special place to stay that was built just for this mission, the Dover Fisher House for Families of the Fallen. The Phaneuf family went there at the same time as the family of the other pilot, Lt. Col. Paul Voss.

“Our mission here and at [Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations] is to honor and respect the fallen and to provide care, service, and support to the loved ones who come to witness them coming home to American soil,” former Dover Fisher House Manager Stasia T. Smith, an Air Force master sergeant, said in a 2020 interview.

The Dover Fisher House is specially set up to provide comfort, with two gardens and a meditation pavilion in addition to the kitchen, dining room, and other areas common to all Fisher Houses. The Dover Fisher House also has more staff support from the Air Force, including a chaplain that provides spiritual support to guests and a chef that cooks some of the families’ meals.

While the families needed the privacy and support provided by the house and staff, they also appreciated being able to meet each other.

“I lost my brother, but my parents lost their kid,” Christina said. “So, Paul’s parents lost their kid. So that’s when we would go out. And we kind of, you talked to people going through the same pain, right? The other family, they’re going through the same exact loss that we were.”

“I don’t think, if we never went to Fisher House, we would even know who [the Voss Family] is,” Christina said. “But for our circumstance where, you know, it was just my brother and this other pilot, you have people that are going through the exact same thing. And oddly enough, that makes them best friends. I mean, we all talk to them. I have them on Facebook. I know one of his daughters graduated college.”

The family members are the guests of honor at the dignified transfer ceremony where the remains of the fallen arrive back in the United States. Senior government and military leaders attend and offer their condolences during the ceremony. The Phaneufs had decided to dress up for the ceremony, but Christina’s dad discovered that he had forgotten to pack a belt.

When he asked the house staff if they happened to have any belts, they apologized and offered to run to a store for him. Christina’s father told them no. Later, he answered a knock at the door to find an airman holding five belts.

“Sir, I didn’t know what size you wear.”

The airmen offered to let him keep all of the belts, but the father, laughing, told them to please hold the rest of the belts for later guests who might need them.

Christina now rides Ryan’s motorcycle in his memory, including at motorcycle rides in his honor. She wears a bracelet memorializing him, even at her 2025 wedding.

-30-

“The only thing that is constant for us is us,” Heather said. “Our location changes, whether daddy is home changes, our friends, church, our community, everything about our life is transient. The only thing that is constant is the ability of the five of us to be together.”

Mom of three, Heather explained how important it was for them to be together as a family during Isaac’s surgery and how imperative she felt it was to his recovery.

However, flights from Eielson Airforce Base Alaska to Tacoma, Washington are costly. The Campbells were able to use patient travel to cover the cost of one parent and their son, but that would leave one parent and their two other children behind. That’s when Hero Miles stepped in.

Fisher House Foundation’s Hero Miles program provides round-trip airline tickets to wounded, injured or ill service members and/or their families who are undergoing treatment at a military or VA medical center. These flights are made possible through frequent flyer mile donations made by generous individual airline passengers. Since the program began in 2004, Hero Miles has provided over 50,000 tickets to military families like the Campbells.

“The home stress is very high trying to prepare for a move, and I have a son who can’t speak for two months,” Heather said. “The process of working with Fisher House Foundation and the Hero Miles Program was the only smooth part. It was so simple, and it was done for me. It was the one thing I could take off my brain space so that I could focus on caring for my son.”

Two months later, Isaiah now has his full voice back and Heather says she is happy to have some of the family chaos back.

“Watching the kids play together in the hospital playroom while Isaiah recovered, that was the best moment. Knowing we were all able to be together,” Heather said.

Heather has shared her Hero Miles story on social media to help other military spouses and families find support as well as encourage others to support the program.

“Words cannot express my gratitude or convey the burden Hero Miles lifted during my stressful time. Being together meant everything to my family.”

Learn more about the Hero Miles at https://fisherhouse.org/programs/hero-miles/

“I was in the hospital as I met her before we even talked to one another. I kept going back and trying to talk to her.”

It was not until two months after Ken was released from active duty that Judy finally agreed to get to know him outside the hospital. The relationship that began after his service grew into a lifelong partnership. Today, the couple has been married for 55 years, and Ken now serves as Judy’s caregiver as she navigates serious medical challenges.

In mid-December 2023, Judy was referred to LA after experiencing migraines and backaches. Additional testing, including a CT scan, revealed swelling and blood on her brain that required immediate drainage and other emergency procedures. What was expected to be a day trip quickly turned into an extended stay when doctors determined she would need follow-on physical therapy and recovery care.

That same day, a hospital social worker contacted Fisher House on Ken’s behalf, ensuring he would have a place to stay close to Judy during her treatment.

“I went over there, and again, being the holidays, it was kind of interesting, really the best way to say it, it was very embracing,” he explained. “They checked me in, and they had just had a Christmas party. It was all this leftover stuff. Anything I needed. They were just so cordial. People were sitting in the living room watching tv, talking to each other. They were in the kitchen making food, talking to each other. And that was very nice. And that, in itself, was a good feeling.”

Ken said the financial relief of staying at a Fisher House was significant, but the emotional comfort mattered even more.

“It saved me a ton of money, and it did. I mean, because you’re not going to get a room down there for less than $400 or $500 a night in that area,” he said. “So, it saved me a lot of money while I was down there. But it wasn’t that as much as, like I say, it was just the feeling. It was like a cocoon feeling.”

Fisher Houses offer more than a place to sleep. They foster a sense of community while also providing private space for rest and reflection.

“I made it what I wanted it to be for me. I ran into one guy who was a Vietnam veteran. He was also from a similar part of the country that I was, and he was there because of his wife, too. And we’d just have occasional conversations,” he said. “It was there when I wanted to, and it was there when I didn’t want to, and I go up to the room and do what I needed to do.”

As a dual-military couple, Ken reflected on how easily their roles could be reversed.

“But if I had been in the hospital as a veteran, and she were the one staying at the Fisher House, I would feel so relaxed knowing the environment she was staying at, having known what it was like,” he said.

“So, I mean, that’s good for the person in the hospital to know also that the people are there with them are staying in that kind of an environment.”

That’s because Anyia, who is studying neuroscience, previously stayed at Fisher Houses in Virginia when her mother was sick as a member of the Navy.

“I’m going to University of Iowa, and I’m excited,” Anyia said. “When I visited Iowa, I knew that was where I wanted to be.”

Like most students, Anyia was worried about costs and looked for scholarships. Her mother, Diana, worked with another military charity who pointed her to Fisher House’s scholarships program. Fisher House administers two scholarships. The Scholarships for Military Children Program was created to recognize military families’ contributions to the fighting force’s readiness. The Heroes’ Legacy Scholarship program honors service members who have died or become 100 percent disabled during active military service since September 11, 2001.

“I remember Anyia talking about her journey and how Fisher House was a part of it,” Diana said.

Anyia’s first experiences with Fisher House came as a child when the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth Fisher House and the Richmond VA Medical Center Fisher House supported her family while Diana was in the hospitals there.

“I remember being the first kid on the playground, the new playground at Richmond,” Anyia said. The memory was one that stuck out for her, even though she was young at the Fisher Houses and didn’t remember everything.

“A lot of the stories that my family tells me about Fisher House are about comfort. Like, Easter, how we had a little Easter egg hunt that was super fun and how nice the ladies were to me and how supportive they were.”

Now Anyia may soon become an expert on memory as she studies neuroscience.

“I am honored to be the recipient of the scholarship for military children,” Anyia said. “And not only because I was a part of the Fisher House when I was younger, but because they helped me and they helped my family through a very hard time and we’re all here and happy today and they helped us with our journey.”

People interested in Fisher Houses, its scholarship programs, or other services can learn more at FisherHouse.org.

For more than three decades, Fisher House Foundation has made that possible.

Founded in 1990, Fisher House Foundation builds comfort homes on or near major military and VA medical centers so families can stay close to their loved ones during medical care at no cost. Today, the network includes 100 Fisher Houses.

Every night, up to 1,400 military and veteran families can sleep safely in a Fisher House instead of a car, a waiting room, or an expensive hotel miles away. That closeness matters.

“When I was in Fisher House, that’s where my family met me,” said Scotty Hastings, a soldier who suffered a gunshot wound in Afghanistan in 2011. “My wife at the time, my mom, my dad, my brother, they all met me there. And the most incredible part of all of it was that they didn’t have to worry about how they were going to afford to stay somewhere because Fisher House had them covered, which was incredible and such a life changer.”

Fisher House keeps family and friends close while a patient heals.

“At its heart, Fisher House is about love,” said Ken Fisher, chairman and CEO of Fisher House Foundation. “When families can be together, healing begins for the patient and for everyone who loves them. These families have already given so much. The least we can do is make sure they never have to worry about where they will sleep or how they will afford to stay close.”

Each Fisher House feels like home. Private bedrooms offer refuge after long days at the hospital. Shared kitchens and living spaces become places of quiet conversation, laughter, tears, and unexpected friendships. Families arrive exhausted and overwhelmed, but they leave knowing they were supported during one of the hardest chapters of their lives.

Since its inception, Fisher House has saved military and veteran families more than $650 million in lodging and travel costs and provided over 12.5 million nights of lodging at no cost. Behind every number is a family spared one more burden during a moment of crisis.

The mission does not stop at the front door of a Fisher House. Fisher House Foundation also supports families through programs designed to meet needs beyond lodging. Scholarship programs help children and spouses pursue education and build futures shaped by opportunity, not sacrifice. Hero Miles turns donated frequent flyer miles into reunions when distance would otherwise keep families apart. Hotels for Heroes ensures no family is turned away when a Fisher House is full. Through the Fisher Service Awards, the foundation provides grants to other nonprofits with innovative programs benefitting military and veteran communities.

Fisher House operates through a unique public-private partnership. Built through private donations and gifted to the military or Department of Veterans Affairs, each home is sustained for generations, ensuring support continues long after the ribbon is cut.

“As long as there is a military, there will be families who need Fisher House,” Fisher said. “This is not about buildings or programs. It is about standing with families when their lives are turned upside down and reminding them they are not alone. That is a promise we intend to keep.”

Fisher House exists because service does not end when the uniform comes off. By keeping families together during life’s most difficult moments, Fisher House delivers more than lodging. It delivers comfort, dignity, and hope.

To learn more or get involved, visit www.fisherhouse.org.

“We walked in there and, ‘Okay, he’s alive,’ is the first thing you thought,” Suzanne said.

Adrian had suffered a catastrophic motorcycle accident.

Jerome and Suzanne quickly booked a hotel close to the hospital, but Air Force patient advocates soon reminded them Fisher House provides service members and their families with a place to stay. Both Adrian’s parents wanted to stay focused on his mental health by reminding him to stay positive. In their view, a positive mindset would help him forge ahead in the next chapter.

“ We’d go to the hospital, we’d see him, and you kept putting that in his mind. Everything’s going to be okay,” Jerome said.

They stayed at Joint Base Andrews Fisher House where they spent mornings in the kitchen making coffee and breakfast before heading to Adrian’s appointments, often reflecting on meaningful moments and memories as a child. Suzanne says he always had a love for athletics, as well as airplanes and aeronautics, as a kid. He joined the Air Force after high school, a familiar career to the Spaulding family.

Jerome, his father, spent 22 years in the Army, including time as a drill sergeant. He warned Adrian that life would not be easy.

At the end of each day in the hospital, his parents looked forward to heading “home.” The Fisher House provided a place to unwind and relax, while also allowing them a safe place to stay close to their son.

“We’d come home… back to the Fisher House after seeing him for the evening and say… let’s go home. Let’s go home.”

When Adrian underwent surgery, the days were long and stressful, but his family knew they had the feeling of home at Fisher House.

 “To our surprise and amazement, it was more than what we could have ever asked for. Comfort. Peace. Security, direction, and friendship for those that you’ve met.”

Adrian was left paralyzed in his left arm after his accident but quickly learned new skills. In his spare time, Adrian is a highly ranked video game player and streamer despite working the controller with one hand and his mouth. Recently, he also competed in adaptive sports with team Air Force at Warrior Games. His parents, once again by his side, cheered him on as part of the Family and Friends Program sponsored by Fisher House.

Nobody wants to need a Fisher House, but the Phelps family had orders to Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado as James started in the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program during his medical retirement in 2022. When Cynthia suddenly went into pre-term labor with their third daughter, they had to immediately pick up everything and head to the best hospital.

“At that time my wife went into preterm labor and was informed she would not be allowed to fly back to Alaska,” James said, “Peterson didn’t have a NICU so we made the decision to make it to Texas because [Brooke Army Medical Center] was there and had all the services that my wife and our daughter would potentially need.”

While at the house, the Phelps met more families going through other struggles, bonding with them and with their newborn daughter, Rossi, during their five-month stay.

They threw a baby shower for us at the Fisher House,” Cynthia said. “And not just for us, there was another family that was there who had preterm labor with twins, and so our 2-year-old has birthday buddies from the Fisher House.”

Their experience was so good that, when their next pregnancy was ruled high risk and their doctor in Alaska was unable to support the surgery, they asked to go back to San Antonio and Brooke Army Medical Center.

And they tried to give back to the house by taking care of all the kids that were there at the same time as them.

“There was a family that had flown in from Germany,” Cynthia said, “and the husband, they believed, had Leukemia, but they were waiting on his diagnosis. And so we watched their five kids along with our four kids at the time, so there were like nine kids in one house, and we helped them so that she could be there for her husband’s Leukemia treatments.”

James and Cynthia have celebrated James’s progress along his own medical journey, especially as James competed in Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025, earning some medals and making many memories. Cynthia and their youngest daughter, Laramie, were cheering him on courtside. Fisher House Foundation is proud to support families like the Phelps, not just within the walls at Fisher House but beyond our doors by supporting Team U.S. and the Friends and Family program at Invictus Games.

The whole Phelps family, including the couple’s other daughters – Dakota Jones, Kimbers, and Oakleigh – are back in Alaska, healthy and growing strong.