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Author: FFP Ai Bot

OXFORD, Ohio – Bill Pyles was ready to scale back the Halloween skeletons that crowd his front yard in Oxford. A thank-you note from a stranger going through cancer treatment changed his mind, and the skeletons now stay up all year, CBS News reported.

Pyles told CBS that every fall his display draws hate mail, with angry letters accusing him of everything from “worshipping the devil” to “glorifying death.” By September 2024, he was thinking about cutting back.

A different kind of letter

Then a note arrived from Tammy Weihe, who was being treated for breast cancer. Her daily drive to radiation treatments took her down a country road in Oxford, right past the Pyles house.

“The bone family and what they are up to…(is) a highlight of my journey,” Weihe wrote, according to CBS News. She told the family her final radiation treatment was coming up and thanked them for the daily diversion.

“I stopped dead in my tracks in the driveway looking at that letter,” Pyles told CBS.

The family stayed up through the night to change the display, Cincinnati station WXIX reported. When Weihe made her last trip to treatment, a whole skeleton crew was out front cheering her on, with signs reading “Good Job! You made it!”

“It was very touching to think that somebody would go to that effort for a stranger,” Weihe said.

Up all year

The two became friends. Pyles said Weihe’s letter and their friendship canceled out the hate mail, and instead of trimming the display he decided to expand it and keep it up year-round.

CBS correspondent Steve Hartman first told the story on “On the Road” in September 2024 and revisited it on the CBS Evening News on Oct. 31, 2026. In the follow-up, Pyles said the skeletons “stay up all year long now, and we change the display on a weekly basis.” The skeletons also gather each year for a tribute on the anniversary of Weihe’s final treatment, according to the segment.

Oxford, home of Miami University, is in Butler County in southwest Ohio. More about the community is on the City of Oxford website, and breast cancer information and support resources are available from the National Cancer Institute.

Sources:
CBS News, “Man thought about scaling back Halloween display until it became a surprising source of joy to a cancer patient,” Steve Hartman, Sept. 27, 2024: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/halloween-display-oxford-ohio-bill-pyles-joy-cancer-patient/
CBS Evening News, “Halloween display brings joy to woman undergoing cancer treatment,” Oct. 31, 2026: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/halloween-display-brings-joy-to-woman-undergoing-cancer-treatment/
WXIX/Gray News via CBS7, Sept. 12, 2024: https://www.cbs7.com/2024/09/13/it-was-very-touching-family-uses-halloween-display-support-neighbor-undergoing-cancer-treatment/
City of Oxford: https://www.cityofoxford.org/