Roberta Broomer connects with other guests at the Alvin C. York VA Fisher House in Murfreesboro, Tennessee easily. Those friendships have led to memories that are hard to imagine, like speaking at the funeral of a fellow guest’s veteran, accompanying a woman to see her brother for the last time, or sheltering together during storms.

“I came over here in awe at this place and just saw someone in the kitchen, and they were just welcoming. And I was like, ‘Oh, thank you.’ And they said, ‘Isn’t this amazing?’ I said, ‘I’m amazed.’ So, grateful, I started connecting like that.”

Roberta has stayed at the Fisher House off and on for 10 years. She quickly became a recognizable face and was just as welcoming for new guests as that first person was for her.

“Sometimes there’s other people in the kitchen getting quick cup of coffee, or they’re sitting in the quiet space, just drinking coffee with the blinds open in there. So we just kind of start connecting like that. Just meeting. Really, the central meeting place has been the kitchen for everyone. That’s where everyone comes.”

“You end up talking to someone, so then you connect, and you find out ‘What’s going on? Who are you here with? Who is your loved one?’ Those stories, you start exchanging the stories of why you’re here.”

One woman, Ann, became so close to Roberta that she eventually asked Roberta and her husband to come to her husband’s funeral.

“Ann and I started spending time together all the time when she was here at the Fisher House,” Roberta said. “We’d go out to eat together while we’re here and do things together. And Ann’s husband died, and she asked, because we developed such a relationship, my husband as well, and I with her, and so she asked that I would speak at her husband’s funeral, and wow, the love that was there. The people already knew of the stories of how we spent so much time together, all of the families. And so when I went there, it was like they already knew who we were at the funeral.”

Ann and Roberta have spent time together since, once even sheltering together when Ann’s home was in a hurricane evacuation zone but Roberta’s was just outside of it.

Another guest, Sandy, was on her way to the hospital and Fisher House when she learned that her brother was passing.

“So I called her and I said, ‘Thinking of you. Is there anything I can do? I’m at the Fisher House.’ And she said, ‘I’m trying to get there.’ There’s a delay. She said she rented a vehicle when she flew in from Colorado. She said, ‘Can I come by and pick you up? Please? I need you.’ I said ‘Sure, I’m waiting.’”

“It was late at night,” Roberta said. “There was no time to waste getting to the hospital because he was declining. We got into the car and drove right up to the hospital.”

Her brother unfortunately passed before she could reach the bedside, but she was immensely grateful to have another Fisher House guest with her in that moment.

“She said, ‘Thank God.’ She didn’t want to see him going down, and she didn’t want to be alone. The Lord had just orchestrated that I was able to be there with her. We went in there and I was able to hold her hand. As we went up there, she got to see him. I was able to be there with her through that and through the last, I guess the last four or five days while she stayed here.”

Then there are the quieter meetings, where Roberta and others start chatting in the kitchen and end up trading tips on navigating the VA, military charities, and other organizations.

“That’s a big thing that happens also in the kitchen,” Roberta said. “In the kitchen, you’re able to help each other with tools that will benefit them, information about VA or things they need to know to help me, to help my loved ones, as caregivers. Just information that you’re able to circulate or share with each other has been encouraging.”

These networks of families and caregivers form in Fisher Houses and are the heart of the home.