Skip to main content

Hoarders: A rash of diapers



I thought I'd seen everything.

Then I turned on A&E's Hoarders the other night.

There was a woman living in her own shit -- literally.

Due to a medical condition, the woman has to wear adult diapers. When she's finished with one, she tosses it into a heap on the floor and just leaves it there. There is a garbage dump full of shitty diapers near where this woman eats her food.

She also has myriad cats whose feces is smeared on the other floors.

When the clean up crew went in, they found three cats who were flattened like pancakes, dead in the corners. One of them had a perfect head and deflated body so you could see it wasn't a fur coat that Mrs. Hoarder had accidentally tossed on the floor.

By the end of the program, those saints who work at 1-800-JUNK were making jokes as they shovelled yet another pile of Mrs. Hoarders paper indies into plastic bags.

I guess when you're in hoarding clean up, you have to learn to laugh.

I know a hoarder and her place is pretty grotty. She has so many boxes, I can point out her ninth floor apartment from the street.

A few months back, she lost her 20-year-old cockatiel but still has the cage in her living room complete with rotting food and bird excrement.

Needless to say, Doris doesn't get many visitors.

I watch Hoarders to get some insight into how to deal with a hoarder. I've been trying to get Doris help for years but nobody -- not even her landlord -- seems to care that Doris and her husband, Bob, live amidst mould, dust and dirt. Nor does the landlord care that their apartment is a fire hazard.

When people reach adulthood, it is reasoned, they have free will and no one can stomp on their rights by trying to help them. Even the paramedics who came into their apartment to take Bob off in a stretcher last year did, and said, nothing about the conditions in which they live.

I'm very frustrated and I want to help them. I've tried talking to the health authorities and have, basically, been told to mind my own beeswax.

I was told nothing could be done unless Bob and Doris asked for help.

Part of me understands this. This is Canada. If people want to live in their own shit, it's their God given right to do so.

But when it affects others, I think something should be done.

Bob smokes in bed. Doris smokes on the couch surrounded by papers and clothing.

One day, one or both of them will die in this heap.

My hope is they don't take the people in the rest of the building with them.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ashley Simpson: Conversation with Derek Favell Revealed

  On April 2, 2017, a family friend of Ashley Simpson opened her Facebook Messenger and got the surprise of her life.  Cathy MacLeod had been trying to correspond with Ashley's boyfriend, Derek Favell, who was the last person to see the St. Catharines native before she disappeared from her home in Salmon Arm, B.C. a year before. She wanted to know more about what happened to Ashley, and why Favell had refused to take a polygraph test when many others close to the missing woman agreed to do so. "I wanted to poke the bear," she said, and sent several messages to Favell pleading with him to talk to her.  " Please help us," she wrote. "It's been 10 months of pure hell. A lie detector would help if you have nothing to hide. I beg of you, help us, take the test to clear your name if there’s nothing to hide." Many, including members of the Simpson family, found Derek's behaviour, at least, curious. Ashley had disappeared on April 27, 2016. Yet it took

Ashley Simpson: A Father Remembers

I have asked Ashley Simpson's family and friends to give us a glimpse into the life she lived before going missing nearly a month ago. Here is how her father John remembers his sweet girl. Ashley was a treat when she came into this world, a smashing 9lbs 8 ounces with a  head full of hair and nails that needed to be clipped. She has made many friends in her journey of life and continues to make them as we speak. She has made this world a better place by her love of mankind and this place we call Earth; unfortunately this life she has lived hasn't been the best for her. She has suffered through unbearable pain and suffering through her menstrual cycles. She has cysts on her ovaries that make those 10 days a living hell. She had one of her ovaries removed when she was just 14; the other they won't take out till she is 40 or older. Years of hell for my Ashley. I so feel her pain every month but she doesn't quit, doesn't give in.   That's my

Jack Van Dusen: 90 Years Old and Not a Drop Wasted

A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others."  -- L. Frank Baum It's not easy standing out in a family like the Van Dusens. They are like tribbles; they are everywhere. In politics. In the media. In the fine arts. Even on stage at local fairs raising money for good causes. But Jack Van Dusen is no ordinary Van Dusen. He's a trailblazer. He was the voice of Ottawa anchoring the local news in the early days, with the sidekicks you see in the photo above. He was on Parliament Hill rubbing shoulders with the likes of John George Diefenbaker and making mischief with the relatively small cabal of ink stain wretches who were the first generation to talk to Canadians over the air waves. After a successful time in the media, Jack had a second career as a public relations guy. That's when I met him sitting at the lunch table at the National Press Club with his brother Tom, the columnist Charles Lynch, Sergeant-at-Arms Gus Clou