Photo By Petty Officer 3rd Class Cody Anderson | 211031-N-MW275-1099 ARLINGTON, Tn. (Oct. 31, 2021) A prop sits in the corner of Lt....... read more read more
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ARLINGTON, Tenn. (NNS) – 364 days of a normal year, oncology nurse Lt. Cmdr. Michael Lanier is a calm and caring, Arlington resident serving his nation as a program manager for medical accessions in the Navy. However, one night a year, Lanier transforms into the Scaremeister, a demented, chainsaw wielding doctor who is intent on delightfully terrifying his neighbors and those who are brave enough to venture to his home of horrors.
Over the past three years, Lanier has constructed a haunted house that operates one night a year on Halloween with the mission of raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Lanier’s journey into becoming a “Pumpkin King” began simply and innocently enough. One day when arriving home from work, Lanier noticed his wife, Jenn, had put up some small decorations, and it inspired Lanier to want to create something more. Before this simple action, Lanier had no inclination towards running the full-fledged operation that he now manages.
“We had never decorated for Halloween really. We liked Halloween. We dressed up. Kids would come to the door, and I would pretend to be a character,” said Lanier. “Then one day I came home, and Jenn had put these dollar store tombstones out, and they were flopping in the wind. I knew there had to be a way to make them sturdier and look more realistic, and that’s how it started.”
From that moment, Lanier then began searching for ways to improve and expand upon those simple decorations. He joined different haunt groups on social media and began watching online videos of like-minded decorators who wanted to optimize their own set-ups. After becoming an enthusiast, Lanier and his family grew their collection of decorations, adding onto their set-up each year.
Lanier says the project really started to grow in 2015 when he and his family were stationed in California. That year, he and his family set up static displays that allowed their neighbors to come up and interact with different scenes. It was during this time that Lanier first got the taste of the scare.
“It was just in the garage, and I would scare-act off the side,” said Lanier. “I would just come around the corner and say ‘Boo!’ to people when they were looking to push the button on the animatronic, and it evolved into adding more and more.”
Over the next four years, Lanier’s hobby grew, and in 2019, his family designed and ran the very first iteration of the haunting as it is today in Arlington.
“I had told my wife, ‘Let’s just do this. Let’s go crazy.’ We decided I was probably going to retire, we were going to stay here and grow some roots, grow old. My son, Tristan, loved his school,” said Lanier. “We decided to build the dream [haunted house] I’ve always wanted. We did it, and that first year, we had $614 raised and over 700 people who went through the haunted house. We were super stoked to do it.”
The following January, after the initial success of their first annual haunted house, Jenn began exhibiting flu-like symptoms. The Lanier’s neighbors had recently had the flu, so they had no reason to believe that Jenn’s situation was any different.
“The kids across the street were having the flu-like symptoms,” Lanier said. “They told us that it was really bad, and that it was lasting about two weeks.”
Unbeknownst to the family, Jenn was suffering from toxic shock syndrome – a life-threatening infection that results from the toxins of certain bacteria entering the body. Lanier’s wife had gotten a fever on Sunday and then passed away that next Saturday.
After the tragedy of losing his wife so suddenly and unexpectedly, Lanier had little will to do much of anything. Drifting in a grief-laden fog, he did his best to continue through life, going through the motions of all that was required of him, having little mental or physical energy to do much else.
Shortly after, the pandemic began to take hold of the world, forcing the family into isolation, which further complicated their grief. Then in the week before Halloween of 2020, Lanier dreamt of his wife who gave him a metaphysical pep-talk, and suddenly he was compelled to continue their work. Although he was unable to build a full haunted house in 2020 due to the ongoing pandemic, Lanier still put up static displays which his neighbors happily came to visit. This was also when Lanier decided that the house would be dedicated in memory of his wife. That year, Lanier raised more than $1,600 for St. Jude.
“I want to show Tristan that even in the darkness, you can still be a light for someone else,” Lanier said. “Even though this tragedy happened to us, this thing we do is for the community. It’s for people. It’s for St. Jude. His mom would want us to do it, so that’s why we do this.”
In his community, Lanier’s haunt has become an event that families, friends and neighbors look forward to every year. On Halloween night 2021, Lanier’s yard and driveway was filled not only with the pumpkins and tombstones, but also the laughs, smiles and chatter of excited neighbors and families who were receiving candy and waiting to be scared. As the show only happens on Halloween night each year, Lanier’s haunt has become a must-not-be-missed production. As the night progresses, the line to visit the house slowly begins to snake around the block with some visitors happily waiting for hours to partake in the experience. For Lanier, that is one of the ways where he says his efforts have succeeded.
“There’s so much laughter, and they’re building memories. Families come year after year because they love it so much, so I have to do it,” said Lanier. “That’s why we have it so big now. We’ve worked so hard. That’s why I do what I do.”
For Fred Smithwick, a resident of a nearby neighborhood, Lanier’s haunted house was the first stop of the night, ensuring he and his family would be able to experience the haunt before they commenced their trick-or-treating. Smithwick said one of the reasons they went out of their way to make it to the house is because it is a fundraiser for St. Jude.
“We came out here just for the haunted house, but we’re going back to our neighborhood for trick-or-treating,” said Smithwick. “It was really impressive. I honestly cannot believe the amount of work they’ve put into it. It looked really awesome.”
As of the past three years, Lanier has raised more than $5,200 through his efforts for St. Jude and has provided a unique experience for more than 2,600 of his neighbors. Lanier says he’ll continue the haunted house as long as possible as it serves as a tribute to his late wife Jenn. If you would like to donate to St. Jude or learn more about the organization, please visit www.StJude.org.
| Date Taken: | 10.31.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 11.23.2021 15:55 |
| Story ID: | 409847 |
| Location: | TENNESSEE, US |
| Web Views: | 251 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, CNRC Sailor Scares Neighbors Into Donating to St. Jude, by PO3 Cody Anderson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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