I moved to the area seven years ago after my husband and I purchased the nearby Pearson place. A narrow tract of land separates our farm from “the guard line.” Two or three miles east the beautiful blackwater Ohoopee River courses through still-white sandbars to meet the majestic Altamaha, four or so miles south. On trips to Vidalia I noticed a chapel on Cedar Haw Road – worn out and ransacked yet beautiful – and one day, I braked to look at it. At that point the doors and windows were gone. It still had front steps and I climbed inside. A sad piano lay on its back, and four hand-made pews were overturned. The structure seemed sound and boasted some wonderful architectural flourishes – very high ceilings and a sweep of windows behind the pulpit, to name two. The future of the timeworn church was clear – it was going to fall into the ground if somebody didn’t do something. An idea like a little bird alighted inside my head. When I was a child, I was beset by strange notions. One of them was that I wanted to live in a church, in the same way that a girl in a Walker Percy novel had lived in a greenhouse. I felt even then how old churches can move a person: in them, I was flooded with peace and joy. Plus, my father had taught me to save things. He was always poised to save a brokendown car or a tree or a hurt animal, even something as insignificant as a toad. He was especially eager to save souls. My father saw beauty and value all around him. To everybody else, he looked like a junkman, but to me he worked miracles. Standing in Cedar Grove that first time, I knew it should be saved and restored as a sanctuary for people to enjoy, as a landmark in a rapidly changing world, and as a memorial to the hard-working settlers of the wiregrass. I had to try. ABOVE Janisse with Jeff Clarke, host of the “Saving Grace” series for Georgia Public Broadcasting, ������������������������������������������ ���������������������������������� BELOW The church �������������������� 78 Toombs County Magazine
20204RD
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