Local family helps folks cope with the Corona bug by decorating their yard
(McQueeney) — Thanks to a local woman and her family, the narrative of this COVID-19 outbreak is changing. That’s because in these days of uncertainty, isolation and social distancing, the family of Lyn Litchke has transformed its front lawn into a beacon of hope, laughter and fam
In their attempt to get their message out of “Let’s Spread Joy, Not Germs,” Litchke says her family has dusted off years of lawn Christmas ornaments — ornaments that have all now been transformed into some much needed cheer for those who need a break from their homes and who just want to hop into their cars and drive pass the McQueeney home for a quick stay in your car smile.
“We are all sheltering in place here. I work at Texas State and now we have to teach online so I’m working from home. Both my sons lost their jobs. One works at a movie theater in San Antonio and one is living here with me and his girlfriend since they both have lost their jobs in San Marcos and so we were just kind of getting all kind of squirrely watching the news and ‘oh my gosh, do I have it? Do you have it?’ — all the things that I’m sure people are going through and we kind of converted part of our garage for them and as we were cleaning out the garage, we saw the yard art and we went, ‘oh my gosh! Let’s do sayings about the virus’ and my son’s girlfriend is so good at lettering and she is an artist and needed something to do and so she started helping with the signs and my son started helping hauling them out to the yard. So, it just kind of took a life of it’s own,” said Litchke.
Litchke says every hand crafted wooden character cutout is a priceless memory for the family. That’s why she says it’s their honor to be sharing them with the rest of the community.
“Every year for Christmas, whatever movie was coming out, Disney or Pixar, I would do this wood yard art of those characters and give it a Christmas saying which kind of went with the characters. So, what you are seeing in the yard right now is 10 years (worth). So, I’ve kind of grouped them by movie sort of speak. So, we just took the Christmas sayings and said well let’s use some of the words that are going around with the coronavirus about washing your hands and social distancing and sheltering in place and finding a cure and then just relate it to whatever saying that we already kind of had and just took off the Christmas part,” said Litchke.
Litchke says up until this enforcement of social distancing, her family was always going in a million directions but today, she says it “has bonded my family back together.” She says not only has it been therapeutic for her family but hopes that others can benefit.
“Our latest sign with A Bugs Life was ‘Avoid the Bug, the Corona Bug. Wash Your Hands.’ So just trying to give it some humor and isn’t that kind of something we need right now too?
Maybe, we’ve got to find some laughter, that silver lining. It’s certainly has brought my family back together you know. We are dispersed. We get so busy and we have been painting and working on this now for three days — all together because you know we’ve all been quarantined together. We’ve all just been around each other and there’s just the four of us here,” said Litchke.
Litchke says just pulling together a bit of happiness for others, in the end, is all worth it.
“As we were putting it together, it was so funny to watch people come up and down our street as the movies kept changing and they kept taking on a life of their own. So, now people are taking pictures and we kind of switched from this negative, scared, panic mode to I think the world is going to be okay again. There is something about Disney — and of course as you know, most Disney movies have a great ending that maybe this is kind of tied into that — that we are going to end up better than ever before,” said Litchke.
Again, the family encourages others to drive by, stay in their cars and take a look. She says there is no lighting so viewing is only best during the day. The home is located at 271 Lakeridge Drive near Lake McQueeney.
