With the Halloween season fast approaching, Bill Pyles and his family began their tradition of front lawn skeleton displays. You may have seen it already, located on Trenton-Oxford Road, but it is a must-see for anyone in the surrounding area.
For the past two years the Pyles family have shown their Halloween spirit through various displays of skeletal decorations. These displays range from things as casual as fishing and construction, but they leave meaningful impacts for all who drive by.
The displays began as a fun pastime for the Pyles family during the Halloween season, “It really was just about what funny things we can make the skeletons do that week,” said Bill Pyles.
However, the motivation behind these displays has changed in the last few weeks.
On Sept.10, Pyles received a letter addressed to “The Family Bone” while switching out skeleton decorations. At first glance, he thought the letter was a negative review. “Oh no, we’re going to get nasty-grams because I started to put the skeletons up in August,” Pyles said. “Someone is not going to like them.”
However, the letter was from Tammy Weihe, an Oxford resident, who has driven past the Pyles’ house on her way to radiation treatments. The letter included words of gratitude for the Pyles’ and their family of skeletons.
In response, Pyles and his family put together signs of encouragement for Weihe to drive past. Including phrases such as “way to go Tammy,” “you did great” and “you got this.”
The family’s response to Weihe’s letter gained the attention of multiple news organizations and social media outlets causing an increase of visitors to the skeleton display.
“We have a lot of people driving past the house, stopping to take pictures and parking in our drive-way,” Pyles said, “it definitely has gotten a lot of notoriety.”
Since the interaction, there is now a larger social media awareness for the displays. Kathy Hogan, who is also going through radiation treatment, first saw the post on a Facebook subgroup.
“Seeing something, like that display, just makes me really emotional,” Hogan said. “Because they [Pyles’] thought to give her encouragement.”
Going through treatment herself, Hogan applauds the Pyles family for giving words of encouragement to Weihe. “It’s the little things,” she said, “little words of encouragement, even just a sticky-note with a smiley face, especially on those hard days.”
After receiving the letter from Weihe, Pyles arranged to keep the words of encouragement out on display for the public to see. “We are going to have a dedicated one or two skeletons now that will be our motivational sign holders from here on, for every holiday,” Pyles said.
“The fact that we made such a positive impact on one person, that we know of, how many more are we making the impact on,” Pyles said.
“The skeleton displays are no longer purely for decoration,” Pyles said. “They are to make them [the public] feel special and to let them know that they are doing great and that we need them here.”
