Calvin Woodfork had never heard of the Fisher House until his family needed it.
“It’s been a godsend,” said Woodfork, a Navy retiree and the guardian of his 10-year-old grandson, Aaron Hunter. “This is like our home. If anything changes, I notice.”
Aaron was only 13 months old when he was involved in a household accident that left him with second and third degree burns over 75% of his body. He was airlifted from the family’s home state of Mississippi to Doctors Hospital and the Joseph M. Still Burn Center for treatment, and the Woodforks were introduced to the Fisher House, which provides free lodging to active duty military and veteran families while a loved one receives treatment at a nearby hospital.
“He spent three months on life support, and he coded two or three times,” said Aaron’s grandmother, Sharon Woodfork, of his initial hospital stay as a toddler.
During that time, she felt as though she’d moved into the Fisher House and made it her home.
“It means everything. It’s a home,” she said.
And it’s continued to be that home. Over the past 10 years, Aaron has had dozens of treatments, surgeries and procedures. Sharon Woodfork estimated the total to be around 90, but “it’s so many we’ve stopped counting,” she said.
They make trips to Augusta every two to three months. On Tuesday, Dec. 9, Aaron was at the Fisher House once again, recovering from a laser procedure to help with scar tissue. For the Woodforks, Aaron and his sisters, Aubrey and Amber, staying at the Fisher House gave them one less thing to worry about.
What makes the Fort Gordon Fisher House, which opened April 3, 1993, so special isn’t that it looks like a home not a hotel or that they don’t have to worry about a bill. It’s the people who work and volunteer there, they said.
“They all treat me well; they meet me at the arches (the doorway)” when he arrives, said Aaron, who enjoys watching TV with Francisco Cruz, who has been the house manager since 1995.
Read more about Francisco Cruz here.
Cruz has watched Aaron grow up, and said he’s been amazed at Aaron’s resilience and his spirit, even after painful procedures or skin grafts that didn’t go as planned.
“He’s very positive despite everything he’s gone through,” Cruz said.
The Fort Gordon Fisher House was among the first to be built by the Fisher House Foundation. A second Fisher House was constructed at the VA Medical Center in 2011.
Fisher Houses rely on donations to cover the cost of family stays. To donate to the Fort Gordon Fisher House, go here.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards, is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award and was named Augusta Magazine’s best local writer in 2024 and 2025. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
