Post Thanksgiving Miscellany...

Hard to believe it has been just over a month since the last post!  I just returned from a brief vacation down south, where I spent the the week of the Thanksgiving holiday with friends.  I visit them 2-3 times a year, and it is always a treat to go see them.  They live in a rural area, and it is quiet and peaceful, and very close to water.  I had over a week break from talking to my hoarding mother.  And it was really needed.

She has been off and running.  Sadly, her favored cat (the deaf one she hand reared) passed unexpectedly on the Sunday before I flew out, some sort of aortic stroke/spine stroke that left the poor little fella paralyzed, and death was imminent.  She put him down, and I did call to check in on her as her neighbor texted and told me what happened.  I am glad she reached out for help, and she did call when she got back from the vet.  

Prior to this, she has been really, really struggling.  It is sad.  She stated the first week in November that she finally pulled the food out of the chest freezer and unplugged it.  She had things that had been in there for nearly 20 years.  The really disgusting and disturbing part is, one of the first few posts I talk about a derecho that knocked her power out, and she was without power for 8-10 days in 95+ degree heat.  THAT IS THE SAME FOOD!  SHE JUST RE-FROZE IT!  And she is now using the same freezer to store her toilet paper, paper towels, and other paper products in.  I bet that smells fantastic.  The freezer is over 50 years old.  

She has also been on a tear ruminating and revisiting the 'museum of petty misunderstandings conflated to huge dramas' and has done the "Now I am just going to tell you this ONCE, lady, I am NOT to have an obituary in the paper or a funeral..." And I cut her off each time telling her that she has told me that 10,000 times or more and we are not going there.  She gets pouty and says "Well, I mean it..." and I cut her off again.  HELLO... It is so sad.  It is unlikely anyone would come to a funeral, and all of that is for the living... I do not plan on coming in unless I have to.  Her funeral arrangements are set and paid for, she will be buried, unembalmed, and she does not want the final date carved on the headstone she will share with my dad.  She does not want an obituary, and she will get all her wishes.

Her paranoia is getting worse as well.  She told me she mailed a letter to herself in her post office box and she is leaving it there in case 'something happens to her' and then said that the hated neighbor in the turn happened to turn into their shared street after her and tailgated her all the way to his driveway and she is convinced he is going to kill her!  

New neighbors moved in, and they are a mixed couple.  Now, she considers herself to be the epitome of unbiased, despite her racist viewpoints.  She has decided that the next door neighbors to the new neighbors are not out in the yard because the gentleman is black and the children are mixed.  I am sure it has nothing to do with the wife having back surgery and almost dying due to organ failure.  She decided that they saw the young man burying her dead cat, and that is why she did not get a Thanksgiving plate from them this year.  

She cannot be reasoned with, and she is unable to see any viewpoint but her own.  

Hoarding.  No one wins. No one.  Hope everyone has a great week, and thank you for reading.