PORTLAND, Ore. — On the corner of Northeast Burnside Street and 76th Avenue, nestled somewhere between hobby and obsession, sits The Giraffe House. The name is written above the garden gate flanked by a white picket fence. Inside the front yard stand three giraffe sculptures, cobbled together with scrap metal and old car parts, one rising nearly 15 feet tall. Along the curb sits an old Chevy pickup truck painted with giraffe spots, near a giant steel gate shaped as five more giant giraffes.
And then, you walk inside the house.
"There's a lot of orange in here!" said Bert Lybrand, who shares the space with what he estimates to be 5,000 giraffe-themed items, from bedspreads to bronze sculptures.
"Just about anything you can imagine that has been created and has a giraffe motif, it's probably in this house!" Bert Lybrand said.
Just about all of those items were lovingly collected by Lisa Lybrand, his wife of 44 years. The way he tells the story, she was 12 years old when she returned home from camp to find her wooden giraffe-shaped clothes tree gone. Her mother had apparently done some cleaning. So, she started to collect giraffes — and never stopped.
PHOTOS: The Giraffe House
"I think something in her just snapped," he said. "One of the things she used to say is, 'People are going to think I'm weird for having so many giraffes!'"
They didn't. And neither did he. In fact, he learned to weld and built the largest giraffe sculpture in their yard. It took him five years to complete.
"I decided, OK, if we're in this, we're in this," he said.
And they were in it, until the end. In 2019, Lisa Lybrand developed breast cancer. She beat it, but leukemia soon followed. On Aug. 30, 2022, she passed away. Her giraffes have remained, and so has the joy they brought her and many others.
"There's a lot of joy going on out there," Bert Lybrand said. "We've got a preschool class that makes a point of coming by here and you just hear the kids going, 'It's The Giraffe House!'"
Neighbors like Julie Garvert just smile.
"Every day! It's hard to not when you have giant giraffe statures," Garvert said.
Garvert's husband, Adam Cornell, agrees.
"My wife's pretty afraid of snakes, so I'm glad it's giraffes," he said.
This year, when Aug. 30 rolls around, Bert Lybrand will mark the day his wife passed by opening The Giraffe House to the public for the first time. There will be a cocktail reception with live jazz, an open bar and hors d'oeuvres. Price of admission is a $125 donation, with every dollar raised going to Portland nonprofit Neighborhood House. On Aug. 31, Bert Lybrand will open his home for simple tours for a $35 donation.
"We're going to flip that around on the calendar," he said. "A day of sadness becomes a day of joy."
Over the years, Bert Lybrand said many people would ask his wife, "Why giraffes?" While she can no longer answer the question herself, Garvert remembers what she would often tell passers-by who would ask.
"She'd just look at them and kind of cock her head a little sideways and say, 'Well, what makes the mountains majestic? And what makes the ocean powerful? That's what makes giraffes so special!'" Garvert said.
And now her beloved, long-legged beauties are part of her legacy.
"She absolutely would be happy about this, for sure," Bert Lybrand said. "We hope to do this every year."
This story is part of our series, Pacific Storyland. From the ordinary to the extraordinary, we'll bring you the most heartwarming and inspiring stories from where you live. Know someone you'd like to see featured? Let us know! Email us at pacificstoryland@kgw.com or text your story ideas to 503-226-5088.