To fill prescriptions, Darrington residents drive 56 miles

DARRINGTON — When Kathy Gatherer leaves her frail husband at home for a long time, she feels anxious. He can barely walk.

Since the town’s only pharmacy closed in July, Gatherer has to drive over an hour to Arlington just to get prescriptions.

“What happens if he falls down and I’m not here to help him up? He falls a lot,” Gatherer said. “Does he just lay there until I get back?”

Gatherer misses their home delivery service from the Darrington Pharmacy and the emails notifying her when her prescriptions were ready. A pharmacy clerk even helped her program her phone once.

That’s all changed after the Darrington Pharmacy closed.

Gatherer and other residents complain about the 56-mile round trip to pick up their prescriptions in Arlington. Besides the easy access to vital medications, the loss took away more than a pharmacy.

‘I hate that I had to do it’

Sheila Sisney, owner of the shuttered Darrington Pharmacy, now lives in Moses Lake, closer to family. She works at a local pharmacy there, and will soon get her pharmacy technician license.

She has no plans to reopen the Darrington Pharmacy.

“It still hurts, but I wouldn’t change it,” she said. “I hate that I had to do it, but it had to be done.”

Sisney and her then-husband Justin Sisney bought the nearly century-old pharmacy in 2014. He was the pharmacist. She handled the finances. Business was good but tenuous. Sisney said she only turned a profit one year.

After the couple separated in 2021, Sheila Sisney tried to run it on her own. Hiring a full-time pharmacist proved costly, though, and she was forced to close two years later.

Sisney spent almost a year exploring ways to keep it open but none worked. The building now sits empty, heading into foreclosure.

Heather Yeagley worked as a cashier at the pharmacy for the past six years.

“I liked to remember what sort of things people liked,” she said. “So, if I got something new, I could say ‘Oh you liked plaid. Look at my new plaid decorations.’”

Now, she’s a medical receptionist at the Skagit Regional Health clinic in Darrington. She said the driving adds up, and a lot of people can’t afford those extra miles. Her advice: “Call before you go [to the pharmacy], don’t show up and expect it to be done.”

‘About the collective us’

Upon closing, the pharmacy in Darrington sent their clients’ records to Arlington Pharmacy.

Cory Duskin, owner of the Arlington Pharmacy, said he has seen an increase in traffic since the closure. When the closure news broke, some rejoiced for him. It was new business.

To Duskin, though, it was bad news.

“Another nail in the coffin for health care,” he said. “This is about the collective us. It’s not about anybody doing bad business.”

He said no pharmacy, independent or not, is safe.

In Monroe, Pharm-A-Save closed last week after a 110-year run. A big sign hangs outside on 147th street telling customers they can get their prescriptions at the Rite Aid one mile away.

Sue Graafstra had worked at Pharm-A-Save since 1976 before retiring at the beginning of this month. Graafstra blames the closure on the pharmacy’s $15,500 monthly rent and declining customer loyalty.

Often, patrons would come in the store and ask for advice, only to say, “Well, I can get this on Amazon for $15 cheaper,” Graafstra recalled.

Elsewhere, local pharmacies have faced similar fates. In March 2019, Mark’s Camano Pharmacy closed on Camano Island. A year later, Hilton Pharmacy & Gifts in Marysville became Hilton & Company Gifts.

In 2018, the Rural Policy Research Institute found the United States lost 16% of its independently owned rural pharmacies between 2003 and 2018. The trend has only continued.

‘Nice, but it’s not personal’

Pastor Tim Ziesemer, of Glad Tidings Assembly of God, is friends with Sisney and her family.

His daughter, Audrey, is best friends with Sisney’s daughter, Evelynne. Waiting for medications was an opportunity to catch up with a friend.

“We would have them over for barbecues on the Fourth of July,” he said. “We’d be at their house for dinner.”

Now, Ziesemer and his wife, Stephanie, sometimes have to drive to Arlington multiple times a week. To manage their ADHD, four family members take Adderall, a controlled substance commonly prescribed for attention deficit disorder with strict rules around refills. The restrictions lead to extra trips because the family can’t get refills before they run out.

“Just another thing that we don’t have available locally in our community,” Ziesemer said.

He tried mail-order drugs, but it wasn’t reliable.

“It isn’t as convenient as it sounds,” he said. “Getting stuff on time can be difficult. Mail delivery out here isn’t always great.”

Still, the Ziesemer family considers themselves lucky. Between his pastor duties and his wife being a stay-at-home mom, the couple can rearrange their schedules easier than most.

Ziesemer also volunteers as a firefighter and often sees people struggling to get medication. People who can’t make the drive must rely on their friends, family and neighbors for their health.

Every other day, Brad Call helps by picking up prescriptions for four families. He grabs them on his way home from work in Arlington, despite his 10-hour workday.

Mildred Brown drives weekly to Arlington to pick up bread for the Darrington Food Bank, where she volunteers. While there, she makes sure to pick up her prescriptions.

Like others, she misses the personal connection. Her daughter had worked at the Darrington pharmacy. In the bigger pharmacy in Arlington, she feels a lot has been lost.

“They’re nice, but it’s not personal,” she said.

Tarya Palmer, owner of the thrift store Tarya’s half a mile from the shuttered pharmacy, misses being able to get the pharmacist’s advice on first aid for minor injuries.

“Doctor bills are so expensive,” Palmer said, noting she misses “the personal contact and feeling like we belong somewhere.”

‘I’d rather pay $1 more’

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Bev Smith, who’s in her 90s, and Forrest Clark hung out at the Cascade Senior Center. Smith drives around town, but her granddaughter won’t let her drive as far as Arlington, so she has needed help to get her meds. She describes the Darrington pharmacy’s closure as “a bummer.”

Smith has found her pharmacist in Arlington accommodating, such as getting her prescriptions to expire at the same time so she can pick them up in one trip.

Clark, an insulin-dependent diabetic, wasn’t always happy with the Darrington Pharmacy.

“When you have a small pharmacy, you can’t be accommodating,” he said.

After moving from Snohomish, he tried using the local pharmacy, but it didn’t have what he needed. He tried mail orders through Humana, but they were often late. Now, he drives 47 miles each way to the Fred Meyer pharmacy in Snohomish every Friday.

“If I go there and something’s wrong, they’ll make it right for me,” he said. “They’re big enough, they got a good stock of stuff.”

Still, both Smith and Clark loved the convenience of all the other things the Darrington Pharmacy sold. Sewing kits, stationery, jewelry and more. Smith said she preferred the store over ordering online.

“I’d rather pay $1 more for a product,” she said. “I’d rather have supported the pharmacy.”

Clark nodded in agreement: “I’m with you on that.”

Aina de Lapparent Alvarez: 425-339-3449; aina.delapparentalvarez@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @Ainadla.