Man goes viral after decorating entire block with Christmas lights for wife

Christmas time has always been special for John and Joan Reichart.

In December 1970, John, back home in Indianola, Iowa, after serving in the Vietnam War as a Marine, proposed to his girlfriend Joan on Christmas Eve.

After getting married, the couple decided to make every Christmas they celebrated special. Over the years, the holidays became a cherished time for the Reicharts.

"Coming out of the Great Depression and World War II when we were born, you know, people didn't have a lot of things, so there were Christmases that we both remember not getting any gifts," John, 74, said. "Once we married, we both decided we would go all out for Christmas since we were robbed of it when we were young."

Recently, however, the holidays have been bittersweet for the Reicharts. In December 2020, Joan, 72, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's after going through a brutal battle with triple-negative breast cancer.

"She couldn't catch a break," he said. "She kept getting hit with one thing right after another."

Determined to create lasting memories for Joan despite her health challenges, John set out to surpass the couple's previous Christmases this year by doing something unforgettable for Joan: lighting up his neighborhood by decorating every house on his block for the holiday season.

"We would always light up our house for Christmas, but it was nothing like this," he said. "I went all-in on the lights this year."

The Reicharts' story goes viral

John set out to decorate his neighborhood with Christmas lights in late September when most people were decorating their homes for Halloween. Using thousands of dollars from his savings, he made weekly trips to hardware stores to stock up on LED lights.

Afterward, he spent nearly every night in his garage assembling the decorations before planting them in his neighbors' yards if they wished to participate.

One neighbor, Frank Ewurs, had been looking to install permanent lighting on his house for some time. When he noticed John installing Christmas lighting in others' yards, he decided to strike up a conversation with him.

"I started talking to him and discovered he was doing all this himself and doing it for his wife, and that really touched me," Ewurs said.

Ewurs, 45, moved to Indianola two years ago with his wife and two children. He said he had never spoken with John before seeing him put up the Christmas lights.

"I got to talking to him a little more and found out that we were both military veterans and had similar interests," Ewurs said. "We kind of just been friends since then."

Ewurs helped John finish installing the lights on the last houses on the block, and by the second week of November, nearly every house on E. Franklin Avenue was dawned with its own custom LED lighting under the soffit of the home and a nine-foot LED Christmas tree for the lawn.

Almost immediately, residents of Indianola went to check out the homes on John's block. Then, as word quickly spread and local news organizations began running the story, John started receiving visitors from across the state.

By Thanksgiving, the Reicharts' story went international, as the brightly lit neighborhood was being shown on the CBS Evening News before later being picked up by The Washington Post and BBC News.

"In the last month or so, I've been interviewed by people from Canada and the Netherlands," he said. "The attention this has gotten has been truly something else."

Whenever folks check out E. Franklin Avenue, they're almost certain to find John and Joan sitting in their garage — no matter the weather — bundled up and handing out hot chocolate to people.

There was just one problem with all the decorations: there was nowhere to put them. This led John to purchase a new shed to store the lights, which he said was over $20,000.

"I told [John] that's going to cost a lot of money, and I already knew how much money he had put into the lights and all the medical bills with his wife," Ewurs said. "I told him maybe we could take up a collection in the neighborhood or set up a GoFundMe."

Initially hesitant, John agreed to Ewurs setting up a GoFundMe and opening up a P.O. Box on his behalf. Since starting both in late November, the GoFundMe has raised over $10,000, and John has been sent over 2,000 cards from all 50 states and around the globe.

Ewurs said it has been great to see all the support Joan and John have received due to the latter inspiring others and bringing the community closer together.

"Their story has brought people in the neighborhood together — I've met more people in the neighborhood since John began doing this than I knew prior," Ewurs said. "His love for his wife and Christmas is heartwarming and means a lot to people in our community."

With the success of the Christmas lights on his block this year, John said he has created his own Christmas tradition that he hopes to continue for many years.

"Even if [Joan] passes away, I'm still going to do it as a way to remember her," John said.

Cooper Worth is a service/trending reporter for the Des Moines Register, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cworth@gannett.com or follow him on X @CooperAWorth.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa man decorates neighborhood with Christmas lights for sick wife