Georgia: Light in a Graveyard, Part l

The Marshes of Glynn

“…Beautiful gloom, soft dusks in the noonday fire,--

Wildwood privacies, closets of lone desire,

Chamber from chamber parted with wavering arras of leaves,--

Cells for the passionate pleasure of prayer to the soul that grieves,

Pure with a sense of the passing of saints through the wood,

Cool for the dutiful weighing of ill with the good:--…“

Christ Church Cemetery

This sad, touching ghost tale has been told for many years on St. Simons Island the largest island in the Golden Isles. 

St. Simons lies across from the “Marshes of Glynn” made famous by the poem written by Sidney Lanier above.

Most believe this is a true story.

Long ago there was a couple that lived on St. Simons Island just off the Georgia coast. They were totally devoted to each other.

The wife was terrified of the dark, so her husband every night at bedtime would bring a candle into their bedroom.

The years passed, and the wife became ill. Knowing she was about to die, she told her husband that she was afraid of being placed in a dark grave. Her husband eased her fears by promising to bring a lit candle to her resting place every night.

After she died, her husband kept his promise. For as long as he lived, he would visit the cemetery where his wife was buried at night and leave a burning candle on her grave.

After he died, the residents of the Island were shocked when this nightly light continued to be seen in the cemetery.

Christ Church early 20th century.

Most came to believe that this devoted husband’s spirit was continuing his labor of love. This light is seen in Christ Churches’ cemetery even today.

A flickering flame is seen passing through the grave markers, and then it stops at the wife’s grave--where it remains until sunrise.

Read about the St. Simon’s lighthouse another place that is haunted on this Island in Part ll--St. Simons Island Light.