A situation between neighbors that played out on TikTok up an important question: Should one neighbor have to remove a holiday decoration because it makes someone else on the block uncomfortable? However, before it became a conflict, one neighbor settled the situation with kindness.
Salena Webb of Duncan, South Carolina, a confessed “Halloween lover,” proved it this year by putting her decorations up in September. Webb is the mother of 4, with another on the way, who shares gardening tips on TikTok.
Webb did an excellent job decking out her lawn for the spooky season. Her decorations included a giant spider web, some tombstones and two skeletons carrying a coffin. Webb loved her decorations but they caused a bit of a problem with her neighbor across the street.
The adult son of an elderly Russian couple came to her door with a peculiar request.
@thatsnorthsense My family knows i loveeee Halloween and my decorations took me awhile to make and put up. I had just purshased the skeleton carrying the casket to go along with my graveyard to really set my halloween decor off this year🥴 I was a little sad at first but i thought about the bigger picture. Me removing my casket isnt hurting me at all but it may ease and bring my neighbor a little bit of peace as he adjusts to this news. Kindness is free and compassion goes a long way. Now what to replace it with🥴😩#Thatsnorthsense #dailyvlog #compassionforothers #halloween2023 #loveyourneighborasyourself
“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?'” she told Business Insider.
But then, suddenly, it all made sense. “This guy is dealing with mortality,” Webb said, adding that the man had specifically noted that the casket made him uncomfortable. In a follow-up video, Webb pointed out that the elderly man often sits in his garage, directly across the street from the coffin decoration.
So, Webb decided to remove the casket from her lawn.
“I do get it, you know, and I understand it is like literally right across the street, and he can look right into it, so I get it,” she admitted in a follow-up video. So, this year, she moved the coffin into her back yard.
@thatsnorthsense Replying to @JennAngel 🪱🌈🪐☁️🪅💠 maybe some can now understand why they were a little touchy about it and at night theres fog that i have come out from it🤣 so i get it.. #Thatsnorthsense #dailyvlog #compassionforothers #halloween2023 #loveyourneighborasyourself
“I was a little sad at first but I thought about the bigger picture,” Webb captioned her TikTok video. “Me removing my casket isn’t hurting me at all, but it may ease and bring my neighbor a little bit of peace as he adjusts to this news. Kindness is free and compassion goes a long way.”
There are many different ways in which that situation could have played out. The neighbor could have been aggressive when asking Webb to remove the decorations, but he wasn’t. Webb could have gotten defensive and told the neighbor that her decorations were none of his business. But she didn’t.
One commenter perfectly summed up the situation. “His explanation was so heartfelt. It’s so kind of you to respond in the same way,” CocoJoJo30 wrote.
After the video went viral, Webb went across the street and gave her ailing neighbor a card and some balloons to tell him that removing the casket wasn’t a problem. As for the skeletons, they’re still on the lawn, but now they are playing a friendly game of badminton instead of carrying a coffin.