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During the 11 years spent just outside of Jacksonville, my family fell in love with the smell of the marsh, the beautiful oak trees draped in Spanish moss and, of course, that Southern hospitality.
When we returned to Pennsylvania in 1997, we found ourselves missing the south, and the desire to return someday lingered in the backs of our minds.
Life moved along as it tends to do. I married in 2000. My sister Kristen, the eldest, graduated from college and began teaching. And mom, Cheryl, decided to return to school in 2001 to pursue her love of interior design.
After an exhausting first year in school, my mom and my dad, Warren, decided they desperately needed to get away for a few days.
Having read about Beaufort in a recent magazine article, they decided it sounded like the perfect getaway.They arrived, and they were hooked. It was the South they loved. Lush green marshes, breathtaking old Live Oaks and, once again, that Southern hospitality.
Mom and dad bought property that weekend in the lovely coastal neighborhood of Habersham. As mom looked across the property, tears filled her eyes because she knew she was home.
Thus began the plot to convince me and my husband, Brian Craig, to move down to Beaufort, as well (Kristen would soon move outside of Chicago with her new husband). It didn't take much arm twisting.
The four of us stayed at a cottage at the Beaufort Inn, and for Brian and I, it was love at first sight. As we visited Habersham for the first time and saw the plans for the future marketplace, an idea hatched in our minds.
What if mom and I could fulfill our dream of opening a small shop where we could capitalize on our talents of interior design and event planning? Wouldn't it be wonderful to walk to work every day to a job we both loved? To be a part of that Southern hospitality and live in a small town where we could know our customers by name?
After plotting, planning, researching and hoping, the Hunters and the Craigs made the move to Beaufort, and in 2007 mom and I opened Joli Home & Events in the Habersham Marketplace.
We are doing what we love. We can walk to work each day, past the new shops and restaurants popping up in the market area. We greet our customers by name, with the Southern hospitality we've come to adopt as our own.
We pour our creative energies into the shop, merchandising just the right way, brainstorming event ideas and offering suggestions and assistance to those visiting us each day. And as we leave each evening, waving hello to our neighbors or chatting with them on the sidewalks, we appreciate all the things we love about Beaufort.
The past two years have not been without challenges. But every time Brian and I get overwhelmed, we take a walk with our son down to the river. Walking down the tree-lined streets leading to the river reminds us why we're here. And watching the sun set over the water as the breeze blows the salt air across our faces refreshes us.
Dad and mom need only to sit on their porch and look out over the pond and the marsh behind it to remember why they're here. As they watch the moon rise over the water, they know that they are home.
