Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1518483
April/May 2024 | maconmagazine.com 109 Feeling lost once more, she drove down to Macon. "As soon as I get off I-75, I feel my heart start beating, beating ... Beating like it was coming alive. ... Like a cherry blossom in the wintertime. The tree has lost, poured down all its leaves. But coming to Macon, my heart became like the tree in the springtime. Beating, beating ...the blossoms coming back." TOP Classic cabbage kimchi. Photo by MM staff. ABOVE The family enjoying a meal at home. Photo courtesy of Miyang. "After my youngest daughter, I was 42. My hip was not in good shape. My doctor said, 'Miyang, you have to close your daughter factory,'" she recalls, chuckling at the well-received joke. "But by that time, Jesus had given me my vision," she said, her tone growing bright. "My Kimchi Factory." CHERRY BLOSSOMS AND THE OLD LEN BERG'S She just needed to find the right location for that vision. Initially, she had planned to open her restaurant near the Kia factory, where she already had a clientele. In the meantime, she began catering out of her home, making kimchi and dumplings. A difficult divorce set her back. "After the divorce, I felt like I had lost everything. My husband wanted to bring our daughters with him to Macon. I knew I could never be so far from them," she continued. Feeling lost once more, she decided to drive down to Macon ahead of the move. "As soon as I get off I-75," she said, "I feel my heart start beating, beating, beating. Beating faster and stronger, you understand?" As she spoke, Miyang paused and placed her hand over her heart, where her apron string was tied, tears shining bright beneath the bright purple bandana wrapped tight around her head. The other hand trembled around her steaming teacup. Even in this emotional moment, she paused to refill our tea. "Beating like it was coming alive," she said. "Like a cherry blossom in the wintertime. The tree has lost, poured down all its leaves. But coming to Macon, my heart became like the tree in the springtime. Beating, beating, little living green things coming back. The blossoms coming back. I just knew that Jesus had chosen this place for me and my family, for my business, my mission." "[Macon] has so much history, like the beautiful train station, and it was like me [in that] it had seen some hard times. But I saw how it was growing and changing and getting stronger. I knew this was the place." Over the next few years, Miyang took a job in the Kumho Tire factory in South Macon and spent most of her free time driving the city, looking for a building for her restaurant. It was a long search, but she never lost the feeling that Macon was her destiny. One day, her landlady, a fellow Korean and friend from church, asked Miyang to come see one of her commercial properties: the old Len Berg's on Walnut Street.