Stephen Waller and his wife, Cindy, support each other at the Murfreesboro Fisher House during Stephen’s frequent visits to the VA for care for his amputated leg. While there, they enjoy the comforting presence of the staff and other guests. Stephen has undergone a dozen surgeries, and he and Cindy have found community at Fisher House during their hospital stays.
“So we started coming here, and I still come up here quite often. I’ve been hospitalized three or four times here at the Nashville VA,” said Stephen Waller. “And when I do, of course, Cindy, she stays here instead of going all the way back to Chattanooga and making the transit back and forth.”
Stephen Waller served in the Vietnam War as a Navy corpsman attached to Marines. He later joined a National Guard unit affiliated with the 101st Airborne Division and mobilized for Desert Storm, but the war ended before for his unit to make it.
As of 2024, he and his wife Cindy have been married for more than a decade. The two fell in love quickly.
“I knew, the first time I saw him, I was going to marry him. I knew the first time,” Cindy said.
“We had one date, and I actually asked to marry her on her second date, third date?” Stephen said. “Third date. Yeah, that was it. Been that way ever since.”
“We’ve been married 11 years,” Cindy said. “People see us and then they say, ‘You must have been married forever.’”
The Wallers deal with Stephen’s health issues together, including complications from a farming accident that took his leg. These days, they spend a lot of time traveling around Tennessee for his medical care.
“I’ve had, geez, I don't know, 10, 12 surgeries on my leg,” Stephen said. “I keep getting shorter and shorter. And then most recently I developed osteomyelitis, a bone infection, and they've had to cut it off a couple times. And then the last time I went in there and they scraped it all out, and I'm on antibiotics now right here. I get antibiotics 24 hours a day through a pump.”
Stephen is grateful to the Nashville VA for the care they give him, and to the Fisher House for ensuring that they can be together and safe while he gets care.
“It’s nice. It really, really is. About half of my doctors are here at Murfreesboro and the other half are in Nashville, and I usually have my surgeries up in Nashville. So you get the best care in the state. That makes me feel better too.”
Through the repeated visits, the Wallers have found community at the Fisher House.
“Rebecca comes up and sees her dad, then Danny's up here with his brother,” Cindy said, naming other guests at the house, “and especially because you have to eat in the dining area, so everybody’s in there fixing and doing together. It’s so nice.”
“Everybody shares,” Stephen said. “Go out, bring food back in, and we share. Whether you cook or it’s take out, it’s fun. It is a family. It really is. I love it.”
