My mother is a hoarder

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 22:01:00 +0000

My mother wasn't always a hoarder. In pictures from before I was born, I can see an almost sterile home. There is no clutter, there are wide open spaces. I was 3 years old when my mother developed an interest in antiques. Later that year, my oldest brother was killed in a car crash, and my family imploded. One brother left home, another enlisted in the Navy, another brother got involved with drugs. The youngest of the boys was in high school. My sisters were 11 and 9 when my brother died. But my mother's way of dealing with her loss was to become an "antiques collector." She was a child of the Depression, and the tendency to hold on to things hearkened back to a poor childhood. But, in reality, what she collected was mostly junk.

Salon.com > Jane Brogan

My mother is a hoarder