COLWOOD, B.C. — As she waters more than a dozen colourful flower baskets in her front yard, Melissa Bowers recalls always striving to make her world brighter. “I love to see everybody smile and be happy ever since I was a kid,” Melissa smiles. But when she was a kid, going to school couldn’t have felt darker. “I’m the quiet, hide-in-the-corner type person,” Melissa says. “When I was a kid, I was picked on.” The bullying got so bad, Melissa dropped out in Grade 10. “It kind of my broke my heart,” Melissa says. “But I found a job and everything worked out from there.” She got married, had kids who finished high school (including one named the valedictorian), and then there was that day they drove past one of those giant skeletons that people put in their front yards. “Oh! I had goosebumps! It really did,” Melissa says. “It made me feel like a kid at heart.” It felt so good that first Halloween that Melissa decided to leave it up and decorate the skeleton with a huge Santa suit for Christmas. “I was afraid people were going to name-call me or pick on me,” Melissa says. But, after she decorated the skeleton to celebrate Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Canada Day, and many others, instead of criticism, Melissa earned accolades. “I’ve gotten flowers, I’ve gotten cards, cookies dropped off,” Melissa smiles. “Just everybody thanking me.” And perhaps the greatest gift of all, is how it’s made a young girl who was picked on for being quiet, finally feel heard. “I speak through the big skeletons,” Melissa says. And what she’s saying now — as she creates an elaborate display featuring a bunch of skeletons wearing caps and gowns — is congratulations to everyone in the neighbourhood who’s graduating. “It’s for all the kids who worked so hard for the 12 plus years,” Melissa smiles. And if the skeletal scholars in her front yard could deliver a commencement speech, Melissa says they’d begin by suggesting you be yourself and don’t give up. “We all go through hiccups in life,” Melissa says before smiling. “It will (get better). It always does.” And in this this world where we are judged by our differences on the outside, Melissa says the skeletons remind us that we’re all the same on the inside. “Be nice to each other,” Melissa smiles. “Be happy and love each other.”
