Gift for a 'giver': Churches build transportable home for Beaufort woman and her elderly mother

Hattie Davis' Beaufort mobile home is coming apart at the seams.

Gaping holes are forming in the corners of her bedroom, allowing the fall chill to creep in.

The floorboards are creaky and sagging and there are holes in the bathroom floor and walls. A snake slithered through a crack into the bathroom recently, giving the 63-year-old quite a shock, she said.

"It's falling apart," said Davis, who has lived in her mobile home for more than 20 years and cares for her ailing, 98-year-old mother there.

Now, the Elderly Transportable House program is giving Davis, a retired Hilton Head Island hotel housekeeper, a new home and some peace of mind.

"Our mother is in her nineties, and Hattie is always there for her," said Davis' sister, Geri Hagood. "She orchestrates everything. She's

always giving -- we don't have much, but she's always giving."

Davis and her sister saw the two-bedroom, stick-built home for the first time Sunday during a dedication ceremony at Hilton Head's St. Andrew By-the-Sea United Methodist

Church.

"It is wonderful -- I couldn't believe it," Davis said. "I've never seen anything like it. Now, I know what Christmas really is."

Founded in 1999 by the Mount Pleasant-based United Methodist Relief Center, the transportable house program provides new mobile homes to the needy.

About 28 volunteers from the First Presbyterian Church of Hilton Head Island and St. Andrew By-the-Sea United Methodist Church worked six days a week, over three months in the parking lot behind First Presbyterian to build the home.

Davis' is the third transportable house built by the two churches. David Tolbert Jr., 76, of Ridgeland and Rosa Lee Middleton, 95, of Burton, were the first recipients of the other two homes.

Church volunteers will bring the finished home to Davis' current lot in Beaufort and remove her run-down trailer.

Each home, constructed to house one or two people, costs about $40,000 to build and transport. The homes are rent-free and belong to the Methodist center.

Funding for the homes is provided by Beaufort County, both churches and the Hilton Head Island Association of Realtors.

When a resident dies or moves, the home is refurbished and moved to help someone else.

Davis' 696-square-feet, light gray home includes two bedrooms, a bathroom with a handicapped-accessible shower stall, living room, kitchen and front and back porches. The mobile home also is outfitted with a microwave, washer, dryer and refrigerator.

Jim Fisher, a volunteer from St. Andrew's who has built with Habitat for Humanity for the past 10 years, was the construction manager on the project.

"We started in late August so we could finish by Christmas," said Fisher. "Everything but the floor is volunteered labor."

Davis said she contacted organizers about the program after she saw an ad in the newspaper. Through tears, the grandmother of six thanked the volunteers and parishioners.

Hagood added: "If you do good, good will come to you. It just comes back around."