[music playing]
I'm Bebe, and I'm an artist.
I like to collect all things.
Name it.
I got into teapots and china, photographs and pictures.
It's a certain kind of postcard, fabric,
almost everything in the world.
My name is Peggye, and Bebe is my mama.
We always had a maid.
My mom always made sure that the maid was there for her.
BEBE: I was very fortunate in that we always had servants.
And they did the dishes and cook,
and they did all the cleaning.
PEGGYE: Dad adored my mom, absolutely.
He gave her everything she ever wanted.
I was treated more like a queen.
My name is Cami, and I'm Bebe's daughter.
My father worked very hard and made very good money,
but we still couldn't keep up.
My mother is a very talented woman.
She used her skills to have other people do for her.
Mama?
Yes, come on in.
Special today.
If she didn't get something she wanted,
she was screaming and yelling and having a fit.
[music playing]
He was murdered with a 12 gauge shotgun right in--
I couldn't walk in that room at night time at all.
Well, I kept seeing him in my mind's eye on the floor.
CAMI: When Daddy died, all of her personality disorders
went out of control.
PEGGYE: She took out her grief in collecting
more and more and more items.
It became an obsession with her.
This is deplorable.
There are dead things in the house.
I smell them.
It's a fire hazard.
It's a safety hazard.
There are rats living in the home.
She saw a snake in the home.
I said, the snakes come in because the rats
are living in the home.
[music playing]
CAMI: If my mom does not cooperate,
we will have no other option but to put her in a state home.
PEGGYE: If she's not willing to do what we're asking her to do,
then we will have to take a very drastic step.
She has to be removed.
[music playing]
I'm Dorothy Breininger, professional organizing expert,
and I specialize in hoarding.
Well, here we are in the heart of it all, right?
Kitchen.
DOROTHY BREININGER: I'm worried about Bebe's temper.
I've been told that she's gotten angry just recently
and started throwing things at her daughters.
We're going to make decisions as a team
on what we should be keeping, what we should be letting go.
This is a family problem.
OK.
[music playing]
BEBE: Dryer things for the dryer.
Well, then why is it in the coffee tin?
Because I wanted it in there.
PEGGYE: OK, dryer things in the dryer.
I know where it is.
These are open sprinkles.
They've all been opened.
And they're
So?
They've got lids on them, don't they?
And there's bugs in it.
DOROTHY BREININGER: Everything I've been told
is all about how she screams, screams,
screams and has Bebe fits.
Well, what the heck?
Who's not telling the truth?
How are the girls doing?
I think they're fine, I guess.
DOROTHY BREININGER: OK.
I'm seeing you rolling your eyes, close your eyes.
Is it because you're tired?
I'm Dr. Robin Zasio.
I'm a licensed clinical psychologist,
and I specialize in OCD and compulsive hoarding.
ROBIN ZASIO: Cami pulled me aside expressing concern
that Bebe has been taking pills to calm herself down.
What is this?
ROBIN ZASIO: Lo and behold, she opens up this trunk
filled with medications.
PEGGYE: This is really bad.
Cami, this is not-- - OK.
OK.
PEGGYE: This is not labeled.
That's bad.
We need to deal with it and talk with Bebe
about what's going on.
You will not heal if you medicate yourself through this.
You have some Valium, opiates, some Percocet,
and some Percodan, Quaaludes.
[music playing]
All these scrapbooks that you took months to make up,
and you don't have photographs of your family in them.
I find photographs of your grandchildren on the floor.
Well, that's too bad.
It hurts.
What is this?
It's for scrapbooking for your father.
CAMI: I see my mother's anxiety rising as she's facing reality.
And where are pictures of Daddy?
I have them in the house somewhere.
CAMI: Where are they?
I don't know.
[music playing]
PEGGYE: This was my Daddy's hat.
We thought she just ripped him away out of our lives
and out of her life.
And when we would come visit her,
we could never find anything of Daddy's, not anything.
She hid everything about him.
She tried to erase him out of her life and out of our lives.
Mama, look what I found.
I cleaned it off, but there were bite marks all over it.
PEGGYE: It was shocking, the condition of it
and just her attitude about it.
Somebody ate it, and there were spiders living in it.
So every once in a while, a critter comes in the house.
CAMI: It represents the character, the dedication,
the patriotism of my father.
This is really, really disrespectful, Mama, to the man
who did nothing but love you.
I forgive you.
CAMI: To find it as trash was insulting and
painful, beyond disrespectful.
ROBIN ZASIO: If she doesn't validate her daughters,
then Bebe's not going to change.
She's going to ignore her behavior
and probably continue to repeat the same patterns.
PEGGYE: You never got through the grieving process.
You buried it and buried it, and that's
why we have this hoard, because you buried your grief
about Daddy with this hoard.
CAMI: You could go shopping.
You could go socialize.
You could do everything you wanted to do.
But you couldn't show respect for Daddy.
For the first time in my life, I was able to express
how I truly felt.
I don't find any evidence of Daddy.
Get off of Daddy.
No, Mama, until I know why his pictures aren't--
Because it hurts to do it.
That's why.
CAMI: We got to a point where my sister and I just broke down.
There are just too many memories of my father buried.
If you don't get over this and get rid of your grief,
you're going to start all over again trying to fill that void
in your life with possessions.
You just wouldn't face that you lost Daddy.
We lost him too.
He didn't walk me down the aisle.
That was my dream, that my military dad
in his military regalia would walk me down the aisle.
[sobbing]
I'm so sorry.
You're doing great, Mama.
You're doing great.
I think that she was able to face her grief.
It hurt so bad when he died.
PEGGYE: And face what she had done to our family.
I just ask you to please forgive me.
We already have forgiven you, Mama.
PEGGYE: That's why we're here.
And she took responsibility for her actions.
And she's never done that before.
She made a huge breakthrough.
I mean, not just a breakthrough, I mean, a complete change.
And in the Navy, we say, I christen you trash.
Woo!
Go, Mama!
[cheering]
ROBIN ZASIO: At this point, she gave
her daughters carte blanche to throw
away whatever they wanted.
[music playing]
Thank you, God.
Thank you, Mama.
[music playing]
Because you had a discussion with your daughters that was
MAN: Big deal.
--paramount shift, that allowed me to do what?
Zoom right in and get to the clutter,
clear it out, and make a house.
- [gasps] - Oh, wow.
Oh my gosh!
BEBE: Oh, how beautiful.
It's clean.
Oh my gosh!
Oh my goodness.
PEGGYE: When I first walked in the hallway,
I was overwhelmed with memories.
This is where you lost your dad?
Right where I'm standing.
Right about where I'm standing.
In this space, there was that death.
And with water running, with plants blooming, is that life?
BEBE: Yes.
Beautiful.
Thank you so much.
PEGGYE: I just felt it was healing to me.
[gasps] Oh!
[music playing]
PEGGYE: I really believe that with the ongoing therapy,
that will be a road to recovery for my mother.
And she won't go backwards into her old lifestyle
of hiding and hoarding.
Oh!
What happened?
Oh gosh
Oh my goodness!
BEBE: I've gotten an insight into my daughters'
pain about their father's going, and I've
gotten an insight into the reason that I hoarded things.