Barbara Holloway

once thought Fayette County had lost its small-town close-knit way of

looking out for each other.

But after seeing

people reach out to her son, Justin, as he recovers from a traumatic brain

injury he sustained in an auto crash last December, Holloway has changed

her mind.

"We really

appreciate the way this community has been because everybody has been

super supportive of Jay," Holloway said. "I used to think Fayette

County had gotten too big, but the people still care and it's a nice place

to live."

Several groups

have held fund-raisers to help the Holloway family defray mounting hospital

costs. The latest event, a concert at Liberty Baptist Church this Saturday,

will feature bands Above the Cover and clay covered souls; admission is

$5 and donations will be accepted at the door.

Previously,

the church's youth group has raised money for the cause with car washes

while the Fayetteville Masonic lodge has held numerous chickenques to

benefit the Holloways.

JoAnn Ohmsieder

of Peachtree City gave the Holloways a "great deal" on a specially-equipped

van to accommodate Justin's wheelchair. And thanks to his classmates at

Fayette County High School, Justin also has a therapeutic dog to keep

him company on the long road to recovery.

Although Justin

has about four or five more surgeries in his future, he has come a long

way, according to Mrs. Holloway. For starters, he came back home in May

to live in his parents' care, and just getting him out of the hospital

helped brighten up his attitude, Holloway said.

"That's

a million-dollar smile," Holloway said "He wakes up with that

smile every morning."

And after losing

a lot of weight in the hospital, the former high school football lineman

is starting to get his weight back, tipping the scales at 190 pounds.

"Now,

he eats everything," Holloway added, noting that Justin has put on

20 pounds since he got home. "The eating is the best thing that could

have happened."

Justin has

to relearn how to speak, and he's tackling spelling and multiplication

again. Those developments have amazed his doctors because it proves his

brain is starting to make "connections" again, Mrs. Holloway

said.

"We've

still got a long way to go," she said. "There are a lot of things

we'll still have to teach him to do all over again. ... He has his good

days and he has his bad days."

Justin's next

surgery will be on his legs, and afterwards he'll have a cast from his

feet to his ankles for at least six weeks. The family is hopeful the cast

will be off in time for the Christmas holidays.

The family

has plenty of unwrapped Christmas presents from last year when the holidays

were spent at the hospital; the family Christmas dinner was at the one

place nearby that was open: The Varsity.

Doctors have

told Mrs. Holloway the estimated recovery time from an injury of this

type is two to five years. She is optimistic Justin will recover on the

shorter end of that time frame.

"I just

keep thinking, God got us this far," she said.