VICTORIA, British Columbia –

It was almost as if Deborah Briggs had worked in black and white.

“It was just mundane work,” Deborah says. “The doldrums.”

There was certainly no scope for creativity. Until, as Dorothy wakes up in the world of Oz, Deborah retires.

“It was just liberating,” says Deborah.

But instead of following a yellow brick road, the empty-nester mom began transforming one of her child’s old bedrooms into a new space for her previously unexpressed creativity.

“It’s a joy to be able to do this,” says Deborah.

When she’s not making up for lost time by transforming ordinary wool into extraordinary animals,

Deborah transforms thrift store finds and custom creations into one-of-a-kind Halloween displays.

“All the girls in front,” Deborah said, pointing to a line of people in green costumes. “They’re made from shower curtains and bath towels.”

There is also a large structure with a door that was reused after a neighbor was close to throwing it out during a recent renovation.

“Now this is the house that landed on the witch,” Deborah said before adjusting a pair of legs that were sticking out of the door frame.

And she’s not just any witch – as you’ve probably already guessed – she’s the Wicked Witch of the East.

“It doesn’t have to be blood, guts and gore,” says Deborah, who hopes young families will wander around its brightly colored interactive screens. “Everything is a story to me.”

And the story Deborah tells in her backyard this Halloween, on Linden Avenue in Victoria, is about a girl named Dorothy with a dog called Toto, who gets sucked into a cyclone, drops into a magical world and bonds of friendship with a trio of now classic characters.

“Here we have the Tin Man. It’s the Lion,” Deborah says, pointing to a pair of skeletons – one painted silver, the other wearing a lion hat – before attaching the straw to another skeleton dressed as a Scarecrow.

Sometimes his now-adult children come home to dress up in the character’s costumes as well.

Deborah says she spent a year designing the displays and building the elements. Hundreds of visitors show their gratitude by donating thousands of dollars to local charities.

“The world is very precarious right now,” says Deborah. “People need to smile a little more and a little joy. »

And if we can connect to our unique creativity and use it to help others, Deborah says we might discover that instead of aspiring to be somewhere over the rainbow, we celebrate the fact that there is no place like home.