Wonderlawn looks like “dollhouse”

Wayward youth, birds and garden gnomes are welcome in Helen Hillenburg’s home at 1007 W. 1st St.\nThe wrinkled, slightly stooped woman raised eight foster children in her tiny home and loved them with her huge heart, she said.\n“I love kids,” Hillenburg said. “When the kids don’t have no place to go, I take them in. I can’t see them on the street. I take them in and give them food and give them clothes. I ain’t gonna see no kids hungry.”\nNow Hillenburg’s foster children are grown, and instead she nurtures the neighborhood birds and an eclectic menagerie of lawn ornaments.\nA brightly painted tiger statue peeks out from beneath a card table on the porch, and smiley-faced pinwheel flowers line the walk in old tires cut to be flowerpots. A cement dog wears a green sweater that once belonged to her recently deceased pooch.\n“Oh honey, (the death of her dog is) about to kill me,” Hillenburg said. “I’ve got her ashes in there, in the house on the TV.” \nHillenburg’s house seems to be decorated for every season, holiday and special occasion. An American flag mobile adorns one of the pillars on her porch and a “Let it Snow” banner hangs below the peak. But Christmas, she says, is inarguably her favorite reason to celebrate. \n“Come through here at Christmas time – (the house) looks just like a little dollhouse,” she said.\nEvery Christmas, Hillenburg said she and her friend David Cooper take the lights down from the past year and start again, from scratch.\nHillenburg said her collection started with a fountain that one of her neighbors gave her as a gift. Next, family friends brought her a family of cement deer that has lived in her yard for nearly 20 years, she said. The deer are beginning to show wear, but Hillenburg said their peeling paint and broken ears are not a result of vandalism.\n“There’s no trouble around here,” Hillenburg said. “We’ve got some good people. There’s good people, there’s good people, there’s good people and over here’s good people,” she said as she pointed to the homes of neighbors. \nHillenburg has come to rely on these neighbors, who have taken on the task of mowing her lawn. Most of the heavy things stay in place, she said, but neighbors help her move the lighter objects out of the way and weed around the others. \n“See how nice I keep my yard?” Hillenburg said. “I can just sit out here all day. I love it out here.”\nPerhaps the most appropriate decoration Hillenburg has chosen is a sign that says, “Welcome Friends.” To her, any stranger is a friend, she said, and all are indiscriminately welcome.