Identifier: Season 3, Episode 5
Air Date: Mon., Sep. 20, 2010 (10 PM ET)
Network: A&E
Once again, extreme situations lead to appearances on ‘Hoarders,’ which offer far more dramatic solutions to crammed houses than TLC’s ‘Hoarding: Buried Alive.’ A&E leaves the house clean after just a few days, though in some cases that can be just as catastrophic for the hoarder. This week, though, Laura was more than ready to clean up the process. Time was something she was quickly running out of.
With stage 4 colon cancer, Laura knew the end was coming, and she wanted to make sure she didn’t leave her mess for others to clean up. As we see on ‘The Big C,’ cancer is a great motivator for change as Laura had virtually no emotional issues with the clean-up efforts. Her problems came from trying to do too much and stressing her chemotherapy-weakened body too much.
It’s a shame it took cancer to give her the motivation she needed, as the house was a wreck, with possibly the worst air quality we’ve seen for one of these homes people wre still living in. Particularly since Laura’s daughter Stephanie moved back in to help care for her mother, and brought her 18-month old daughter with her. What a horrific environment for a child so young, but they did get it fixed and straightened up, and apparently just barely before Laura passed away, as it indicated she had passed on September 10, 2010. I’m sure her family appreciates what she did, and the show can stand as a legacy to how deeply she cared, even through a crippling anxiety issue.
Penny’s story was one more of crippling depression leading to hoarding as a way to improve her mood. Well, the shopping improved her mood, and then the hoarding was a result of that. Her 16-year old daughter Olivia had already moved in with Penny’s sister, Suellen, who had a dominating and opinionated personality. Suellen seemed like the kind bof person Penny would never want to be around if it weren’t her sister. And it’s not good for her to be around here, but what can you do?
To make it worse, her 13-year old son Patrick has stepped up and feels that he must now be the man of the house, since their dad split. He is taking ownership of the mess and the problem that the house is in, whic isn’t his place to do. Even the mess in his room isn’t so much his fault in the context of the larger problem in the house.
The turning point for this family came when Olivia admitted to her mother that she doesn’t feel like she has a home with Penny and more importantly that the house isn’t a home for Penny, either. Olivia wants to live at home with her mother, but she can’t in those conditions. No one should have to, and so Penny finds the motivation to clean up and work toward getting her family back.
