My Mom’s 15 Minutes of Fame
You know hoarding is the illness du jour? Well, the therapist my mom has been seeing for just that problem used pictures from my mom’s apartment to demonstrate what she was talking about. My mom is so ruefully proud.
She has, however, offered me anything I want from her lifetime of hoarding. Therapy seems to be working, although no, I don’t want the long-expired can of French-cut green beans, thanks anyway, Mom.
(This is not a picture of my mom’s apartment, although it could be).
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November 16th, 2007 at 5:27 am
I’d say no to the French-cut green beans too, if I were you.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time looking into hoarding behavior as it seems to run in my family, but it never really explodes to full scale squalor. But as a mental illness, I find hoarding fascinating. Especially animal rescue types who start collecting animals so that they wont’ be killed. The pathology is so intriguing to me.
Anyway, I’ve stumbled across a fantastic website, www.sqaulorsurvivors.com, if you think your mom would be open to it. Very good resources there.
My great-grandmother, a lifelong tee-totalling Methodist who used to picket outside of bars and generally spout off at any occasion at the evils of liquor, was discovered, after her death, to have been hoarding in the closet of her room in the nursing home, forty cans of tuna, fifty cans of mandarin oranges, and twenty, yes they were counted, TWENTY bottles of Dry Sack sherry.
Oh my.
We do often wonder what odd sort of a cocktail one creates with mandarin oranges and sherry. We won’t even discuss the tuna for fear of frightening the children or scaring the horses.
November 16th, 2007 at 10:23 am
I watched a show once all about this woman who hoarded. She had so much stuff, piled up to the ceilings, that she slept on a tiny pallet in a little cubby that she’d left for herself.
It’s fascinating - I mean, how can one ever feel rested or peaceful with all that chaos around them? Then again, it seems they don’t feel complete without it.
So, does your mom have any good stuff? I call dibs on any tiaras, old ballgowns, opera gloves, and long, velvet capes. OH, and any old bottles of scotch.
November 17th, 2007 at 12:47 am
EEEEEEEEEK. This is harmful to my delicate sensibilities. And yet, I am drawn to it like a moth to flame. Man, you never did exaggerate about her after all (and neither did I about my family either — isn’t that a fright?!).
Though my father is outstandingly meticulous, when we went through his house to deal with all his stuff we found BAGS AND BAGS of coins. When I was a kid anything under a buck was regarded as a pain because of its weight (I’d love to be that moneyed). I think he’s been saving change since then. So he has NO collections or clutter, but BAGS of money. It’s just what you want in a relative (Hello, Coinstar!)