A man asked his neighbor to take down her 'morbid' Halloween decorations after his father was diagnosed with cancer. Her empathetic response went viral.
Last week, Halloween fanatic Salena Webb was asked to take down her decor by a tragedy-stricken neighbor.
She called it a "no brainer," as the casket and tombstones would be a painful reminder of mortality.
Viewers were heartened about an empathetic neighborly exchange going viral for once.
As a self-described "Halloween lover," Salena Webb had already put up her decorations in September. There was a makeshift graveyard with cardboard tombstones, a giant spiderweb draped over her front porch, and two human-sized skeletons toting a tiny casket.
But the Duncan, South Carolina-based mother of four — who has another baby on the way and predominantly shares gardening and family content on TikTok — has now gone viral for taking her Halloween decor down at the behest of a tragedy-stricken neighbor. And unlike so many residential disputes that go viral on the app, she's been inundated with positivity.
On Wednesday, Webb told Insider the adult son of her two elderly Russian neighbors knocked on her door. Webb has a friendly relationship with the couple, who live across the street but don't speak English fluently. In the past, they've exchanged vegetables from her garden and toys for their grandchildren, she said.
"He starts to tell me that his father was diagnosed with lung cancer," she said the couple's son said. "And then he started to talk about my Halloween decorations. I'm like, 'What do my decorations really have to do with this?'"
But suddenly, it clicked: "This guy is dealing with mortality," Webb said, noting he'd specifically asked her to take down the casket. The exchange was captured on her Ring security camera, which she then uploaded to TikTok. Her post has received 1.2 million views in a week.
Given that the dad frequently hangs out in his garage, which is squarely in view of Webb's yard, she said it was a "no brainer" to try to assuage the trauma her neighbors had been experiencing. She removed the casket immediately. After sleeping on it, she decided to go a step further the next day by removing the tombstones, too.
"I am a constant reminder of what could possibly happen if he does not kick cancer's ass," she told Insider, "and I don't want to cause that stress to someone else."
That's not to say she isn't a little bummed. In a compromise, she decided to give the skeletons badminton rackets — a lighthearted spin that still enables her to express her love for Halloween. The "morbid" items are in her backyard, but it's probably too expensive to redo her front yard this year, she said.
"I'm a little sad about it, but it's not about me in this moment," she said. "There's always next year for me."
Webb said she shared the video to showcase a compassionate neighborly exchange on TikTok for once, where angry feuds proliferate. And while some viewers fumed that they wouldn't have made the accommodation, most were touched by her gesture.
"Now this is a neighboorly thing to do...kindness doesnt cost..thank you mama," one viewer wrote. Another added: "His explanation was so heartfelt. It's so kind of you to respond in the same way."
And her kindness didn't end there. After the video went viral, Webb said she went over to drop off a card and balloons to assure her neighbors she wasn't at all bothered by the request. Despite the language barrier, she said the man was grateful, telling her, "You're good people."
Read the original article on Insider
