‘The last thing I wanted’: Darrington Pharmacy to close in July

DARRINGTON — Darrington’s lone pharmacy, a town cornerstone, will cease operations in a month, leaving patrons to go nearly 30 miles to pick up their medication.

Darrington Pharmacy will close for good at 6 p.m. July 21. All customer prescriptions will be forwarded to the Arlington Pharmacy.

The business celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2017, owner Sheila Sisney said.

“I put my all into it,” said Sisney, 44. “It was a rude awakening the day I realized I had nothing left to give. And it was bad, it’s hard … there’s no words. This is the last thing I wanted. These are my people and all my people are going to suffer now.”

Sisney and her husband, Justin Sisney, bought the business in 2014. He’d graduated from pharmacy school a year earlier. Sheila handled the financial side and Justin worked on the legal side. Things went OK for a while.

Originally they wanted to buy a stake in the business and increase it each year. Eventually, Sheila and Justin Sisney wanted to buy ownership out once they held 50%. That plan didn’t work out, but they were able to secure a loan to buy it all.

Then their daughter Evelynne was diagnosed with leukemia at age 3 in July 2020. She is OK now — a happy, bouncy, sassy child — but it was an extremely difficult time for the family. Sheila and Justin eventually separated and he quit the business.

They tried to sell the pharmacy in July of 2022, but no luck.

“Then in August I had this crazy, crazy (idea) of, ‘Let me try,’ Sheila Sisney said. “And I said, ‘Let me take over,’ but the cost difference of hiring a full-time pharmacist versus what (Justin) was making kind of set me over the top. I tried and tried, but I couldn’t get anyone to loan me money to buy him out.”

Sheila Sisney said their tax returns showed a profit just one year during their run as owners. The business has been in its current location for around 35 years, she said.

The property and building at 1200 Seeman St. will be listed for sale. She also looked for a partnership with another pharmacy but found roadblocks there as well.

“It breaks my heart to close it down,” Sheila Sisney said. “You have no idea. It’s been awful.”

The news was met with dismay by many in the community. On Friday, one local even came up and gave her a hug in the store.

“It’s devastating to us,” said Darrington Mayor Dan Rankin. “It’s one of those things, in this day and age, the pharmacy is part of our essential infrastructure. It’s devastating for a substantial part of our population.”

Many in the community are elderly and on a fixed income, meaning driving to Arlington could be difficult for them, Rankin explained. The Arlington Pharmacy at 540 N West Ave is 28 miles from Darrington Pharmacy.

The median household income in Darrington was $33,500 in 2020. There are about 3,000 people in the greater community, Rankin said.

Darrington Pharmacy was more than just a place to pick up medicine, locals said. It was one of the few places in town to pick up essentials, to find Darrington-related T-shirts and other trinkets. There’s even a jewelry collection.

Greeting and holiday cards, too.

“It was one of the very few places in the community where you could do some shopping, but also pick up those last-minute, forgotten birthday, holiday, anniversary cards,” Rankin said.

There is hope in Darrington that a different pharmacy will move in, but starting in late July, it will be over an hour round-trip for many locals to get medicine.

Sheila Sisney said she is studying to become a pharmacy tech. If she kept the business, she wanted to be able to do it herself.

“I went back to school this year and just — too many balls in the air,” Sheila Sisney said. “I started dropping important ones. And that was where that realization came that I couldn’t do it all. And this was the biggest ball.”

Jordan Hansen: 425-339-3046; jordan.hansen@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @jordyhansen.