ures. What she's got now is crazy
stuff all over the house. GARY: What the hell is that? Some kind of raccoon
or squirrel tail. What's in there? KATHLEEN: Specimens. Part of this is the untimely
death of your husband. Taken so suddenly. There was nothing left. Who took all the lighters? Don't do nothing unless
you get permission. Scott needs to be in control. I'm not going to get
nothing done with him around. Well, y'all are going to
have to learn to work together. So he's staying. You can't resell it. It's got a tag, come on. It doesn't matter. Don't touch my stuff. Get out of here. [music playing] On normal hoards, we
would throw this away. What are you going
to do with these? These I can sell on eBay.
And they make-- [interposing voices] You're not going to
sell these on eBay. KRISTEN: But you're
not a lunatic. I'm Kathleen. I'm a retired teacher. My house looks like a bomb
went off in a warehouse. It's gotten to the point where
I can't manage the mass of stuff that I've got. My name's Kristen. And I'm Kathleen's daughter. My mom, she's got projects
that could line the block. She'll bring home stuff from
big arts and crafts stores, bags full. She goes to the dollar store. She goes to a consignment shop. She'll go to thrift stores. Name it, she brings it. I don't know how this
got so out of hand. KRISTEN: My mom, I think,
has really fun, weird things in her house. But she also has
weird, weird things. I have baby possums
preserved in a jar. She's got a box with dried
out dead birds and mice. And she will comb the
cats, and put it in piles, and put it in bags. I found a dead bird. My mom has an
owl in the freezer. Actually, my mom has
two owls in the freezer. It's been there since 2000. Lots of feathers. She's got bugs. I picked up round worms. I think I've got tapeworms. KRISTEN: You know, when
you walk into her house, and there's a container of
like 50 to 80 cicada husks. What are you doing with that? My mom has been with me for
almost a year and a half. You know, when she came,
the disorder followed her. And it's gotten to the
point where I can't even function in my own home. I feel like Typhoid Mary. I have started
filling her house. You can't sit at the dining
room table to have a meal. You can't watch TV. I sleep on the couch because
she's hoarded her way out of the guest bedroom
and is now in mine. I'm afraid what people will say
when they come to the house. So I'm just like her. I don't let anybody in anymore. I told her that if we didn't get
help for her, that I couldn't have her come back. And that is the worst thing
that I've ever had to do. KATHLEEN: I'm upset that she's
got to tell her mom that she is at the end of her
rope with my junk. I'm Gary. And I'm Kathleen's son. Yeah, my dad, I always joked
that he was like Mr. Brady. Yeah, he was just a great dad. He was a great guy. We just had a great time. It was a very close knit family. I never was so attached
to a guy in my life. KRISTEN: Shortly
after my dad died, the ship just took a hard
right in the wrong direction. KATHLEEN: I dealt
with the funeral. But after that,
there was a big hole. That's when I
started to unravel. I feel like I lost both
my parents with that train accident. It was like being orphaned. All of her just went away. She shut down and disappeared. But nobody loves
me like my husband. Whatever this thing is, it's
something you can't fight. It doesn't listen to reason. You can't argue with it. You can't rationalize with it. You can't love it away. I have to go as far as kicking
my mom out of my house, because it's the only way that I
can see to get her the help she needs. I'm Scott, the collector. You name it, I've
probably got it. I have a bad habit-- I call it my hobby-- going to storage auctions. If they had a lot of items,
like they had 10 of them, and the auctioneer say,
how many do you want? I say I'll take them all. Next thing you know, I'm buying
a hardware store, craft stores, clothing stores,
cigarettes stores. You name it, I bought
a ton of stuff. I bought 42,000 lighters. I bought the stuff, and
then I would buy buildings to put the stuff in. I'm Joanne. And Scott is my husband. He went to his first
auction in 1985. And I went with them. We only came for one thing. And he bought everything. I had never seen
anything like it. He just went berserk. I tried to stop him. I says, wait a minute, Scott. You gotta stop. His eyes were so
like in a la la land. I got hooked. Got some good stuff
for a little money. It was supposed
to be in business, and sell all my stuff. But I fell in love
with my stuff. I'm Corey. And Scott is my father. He's fueling his
addiction to hoard stuff by borrowing from family
members, from friends. I owe my sister money. I owe my brother money. I owe my mother money. I owe my employees money.
I owe. I owe.
I owe. Because I've collected so
much, I'm losing everything. We lost a lot of money. I mean, a lot. I'm Keri. And Scott is my dad. Him accumulating all these
properties, all this stuff, and not having the income
coming in because he won't sell, is definitely why we are
in the financial position that we are today. I've been to one or
two auctions with him. He would start bidding on stuff. And I would have to
be like, Dad, no, why you're bidding on this? Like, don't buy that. And then we'd get in fights. All it is to my
dad is a good deal. It doesn't matter what it is. If you get something
really cheap, it's exciting. KERI: We have been arguing with
them about not to buy anymore. And I just caught
him on an auction. I bought 300 VCRs just the
other day, like a dumb ass. And it just keeps
going and going. You can't tell him no. He doesn't listen. I just stopped arguing. I mean, I just quit
because I just couldn't stand being around him. Dad is a very
selfish, selfish guy. It's hurtful knowing that
he won't let it go when he's in dire straits need, and he's
still holding on to the stuff. JOANNE: He figures
that he's carrying the world on his shoulders. As much as I want to feel
sorry for him, I can't. COREY: I have a
cure to all of this. I can figure it out. JOANNE: Corey is trying
to get rid of the junk. And Scott just
won't let him do it. I presented him every single
opportunity, and in a way, to liquidate this stuff. I'm not getting through to him. SCOTT: Corey complains a lot. In fact, too much. He gets under my skin. COREY: It's just nonstop. And this brings all
the stress on him. And he can't handle it. He just thinks
he's going to die, and all his problems
are going to go away. The first heart attack, he
had seven stents put in. And then he had a
second heart attack. And they had to rush him
into triple bypass surgery. Because he's my dad,
you know, I love him. I don't want him to die. But you think, oh my god,
if he does pass away, what do you do with all this stuff? I mean, we've been so angry
as a family towards him. We don't get how he doesn't
see what he's doing. JOANNE: He destroyed our family. And he destroyed a marriage. And I do believe
he destroyed it. We have been
going back and forth on this issue for 25 years. But when she brought
it to my home, I really understood how
catastrophic this was. And it wouldn't stop in my home. It wouldn't stop in her home. It wouldn't stop until we
found a way to stop it. Hello, Kathleen. I'm Dr. Chabaud. Come on in. But be careful. OK. I'm Dr. Suzanne Chabaud. And I specialize in OCD,
in hoarding disorder. Kathleen defined
herself as an explorer. She's a naturalist. What's in there? Specimens. SUZANNE CHABAUD: Whoa. They were deceased
when I found them. SUZANNE CHABAUD: She's someone
who loves the smallest things in nature, and
really is heartbroken when the natural world
is harmed by humans. I saw a big, fluffy heap
on the side of the road. It's an owl. Oh. Wow. But it broke my heart to find
it, and to see what this was. It's hard to see things die. KATHLEEN: This is a
picture of my husband. He was smart. He was funny. And he loved me. And he loved you. He did. When her husband died,
she went outside of herself, outside of her grief, and
looked for things to hold on to. You've been searching and
finding for a long time. And then you had a big loss. And then you didn't
know what to do. I guess not. SUZANNE CHABAUD: Kathleen lost
her sense of self and purpose when her husband suddenly died. From that point on, her
children felt a tremendous loss of a parent. If I walked into my mom's
and dad's, and I saw a house like this, my reaction
would be unbelievable sorrow to see how mom was living. The family wants life. And they want their mother. They have been waiting for
her for a very long time. I guess the heart attacks,
and just being overwhelmed with stuff, I'm just-- I'm ready to give up. I just can't afford it anymore. Scott, whoa, hello. You're already
throwing things at me. Dr. Zasio, how are you? Good to meet you, hon. My name is Dr. Robin Zasio. I'm a licensed
clinical psychologist. And I specialize in
compulsive hoarding and OCD. I am here to help you start
de-cluttering, from what I understand, a lot of barns. A lot of barns, hon. ROBIN ZASIO: How many? At least 12. 12. Why do you have 12 full barns? I'm an auction buff. And I go around,
and I collect stuff. I go to auctions
and storage units. How many properties
do you have? Over 500. 500 properties? The scope of this
hoard is so large, I think it's safe to say that he
not only has one of everything, but he could have
hundreds to thousands of just about everything. Do you see yourself
as a collector? Or do you see
yourself as a hoarder? Collector. ROBIN ZASIO: You're a collector? Collectors have
a system in which they organize their stuff,
and collect their stuff. He is clearly a
compulsive hoarder. He just wants stuff. And he wants thousands of
each item surrounding him. This looks like a hoarded barn. - This is my good stuff here.
- Oh, this is your good stuff? - Yes.
- Right, show me around? OK. What is that over there? Those are
surveillance cameras. I didn't buy one. I bought 12, 13. Right behind you
there's probably in the thousands, and thousands,
and thousands of baseball cards. ROBIN ZASIO: You can't
buy one of anything. You know, that's
the key right there. I don't go out and buy one ATV.
I buy 12. - Right.
- I don't buy one generator. I buy 35 generators. I've caught myself doing
that several times. I mean, why would you
need that many lighters? I got carried away, didn't I? That's the
understatement of the day. Just in one area alone, he has
43,000 lighters, 23,000 pairs of shoes, and over
250,000 baseball cards. You've got school buses,
boats, ambulances. What are you going to do
with all this stuff, Scott? You're not doing
anything with it. I mean, why do you have
six shopping carts? SCOTT: I'll have you pick
my brain to figure out why. You might be the first one
that actually has me stumped. How much, just in this
barn, do you think can go? Whether it be auctioned,
recycled, thrown away? SCOTT: Some of this is
good stuff, you know, as you can see. We just got to get rid
of some of this stuff somehow so we get new stuff in. OK, according to you
and what you just said, is we're going to clear this out
so you can bring in more stuff? I made a mistake
there, didn't I? You know what? I think you slipped. And you're being honest. And I might as well leave
right now if that's the plan. Because I'm going to do a
disservice to you if we're just making more room
to get more stuff. He is so deep into his
compulsive hoarding, my greatest fear is that we
will clear out two barns, whatever we can do, and that's
only going to lead to more room to bring in more stuff. My name is Matt Paxton. I'm an extreme
cleaning specialist. Financially, you're
in a lot of trouble. This is a hard one. This is one of the biggest
crisis situations I've ever seen. He and his family could lose
everything because he's not ready to take responsibility. We can only take so much
out of this problem. We're going to do
the best we can. And we're going to get your
skill set up so that the family can do this together. You guys ready to do this?
- Ready. - Yep.
- All right, let's go. What-- what you got in here? A couple more than
probably 10,000 lighters. Oh, [bleep]. Look at all that good stuff. I'm not throwing a heap
of plates away, folks. Your house will be
full in one minute. This ain't garbage here.
This goes right-- MATT PAXTON: Why are
you trying to keep that? Everything's going to be
your personal collection. SCOTT: I hate to
throw something away. How is this going to make your
life better, storing a clown? What would you do with him? MATT PAXTON: Throw
it in the trash. It's very easy to
throw that away. I can't get rid of this yet. I can't have the
life I'm supposed to have until this gets fixed. This is kind of the big,
last thing that I got. And if this doesn't
work, we're screwed. OK, well, good
morning, everybody. ALL: Good morning. My name is Dorothy Breininger. I'm a professional
organizing expert. And I specialize in hoarding. How are you? Um, I would say scared. Being scared is kind
of a normal thing. Don't you think?
- Absolutely. Yeah. - This is a big deal--
- It is. SUZANNE CHABAUD: --walking
back into your life. But it's a good deal. Kathleen is a hoarder of
circumstances and trauma, very clearly. She was a woman who was
very organized before. There was a death, her
husband, and because of that, she took on this particular
addiction, which is hoarding. Ready to go? Ready. That way. Let's go. DOROTHY BREININGER:
Oh, you have ticks? I'm OK without the ticks. Kathleen has a ton of
what, we'll call, "specimens" throughout the house. What was the purpose
of keeping those? Because I'd never
seen them before. I figured, you know, since
I had the opportunity, put them in alcohol
and check them out. Yeah, I get it. I think they're nature
experiments gone awry. You know, having my
brother here is huge. Because I'm the only
one, outside of my mom, who's been in the house before. And to try to relay
that to him in a way that he could
understand, is completely impossible without seeing it. What the hell is that? It appears to be some kind
of raccoon or squirrel tail. Oh, boy. What she's got now is crazy
stuff all over the house. And if people were
to look in, they would say, what's with her? If you don't know
where the pizza boxes are with the cicadas in them,
then you've got to save these. On normal hoards, we
would throw this away. But because we know the
value of nature to you, we left it so we could
get an understanding. I just think there's
no way anybody is going to get any use out of this. What are you going to do
with these, though, honestly? These I can sell on
eBay and [inaudible].. You're not going to
sell these on eBay. SUZANNE CHABAUD: Gary
expressed that he's eager to get rid of so much. So he may have to come up
face to face with his mom, and challenge her to do
something she's not ready for. They're covered
in mouse [bleep].. You have a dining room
table full of insects. KRISTEN: Mom, take a second. GARY: You know, I just
see a bunch more rooms that need to be hauled out. I feel compelled to go, come on,
come on, come on, throw it out, throw it out, throw it out.
Let's go. Let's move. I just don't understand. I need talking through. Because obviously nobody's
talked me through this [bleep] hole. OK, we just spent 10 minutes
arguing over cicada husks that I know mean
something to you. But is it the cicadas,
or is it us and you? I think it's hard
for you, a mom that's been so competent
in so many ways, to be someone who
has a disorder. Well-- And that your children have
to help you work through this. KRISTEN: It's heartbreaking. It makes me really sad. But I know it's the
disorder in the way. But you're not a lunatic. That's no good. It's all expired. I'll do it later. ROBIN ZASIO: Scott's compulsive
hoarding is very, very serious. It's embedded in him. We're going to have a
big problem here today. These have expiration dates. If you can't throw away perfume
that is not usable and expired, we are in trouble. He doesn't want to
let go of his stuff. I don't know how well
this is going to pan out. I'm throwing this away. ROBIN ZASIO: OK,
Scott, listen to me. Hold on. Plug it in first
to see if it works. You don't throw $80 away. We have 65 of them. Plug it in first. You know, if we're got to
plug in every single piece of electronic equipment-- SCOTT: Corey-- It doesn't work. Unbelievable. You sure the power was on? There's no reason
we need these. - It's just cardboard.
- Those are good for our filing. Put the other one down here,
right here or in the garage, or you're fired. I guess I'm fired. He obviously can't make all
the good decisions himself. If I got to ask
him on everything, we're never going
to go anywhere. We won't get anything done. I'm just calling [bleep]. I don't care. Here, you want
another Dirt Devil? SCOTT: Hold on, what is that? MATT PAXTON: We have to get the
family in the habit of using Scott to actually
make these decisions. Eventually Scott has to
make the decisions himself. No, just walk by. Don't even tell him. Just go right to
the garbage, yep. See how much easier it is
when I run my crew over here. We're cleaning it right up.
No problem. MATT PAXTON: Hey, hey, time out.
Time out. This is the deal. You guys are going to
have to work together. The two of you can
make this happen. For damn sure. There is how you reclaim
your life and your space. Thank you. It's got to be recycled. It's heavy.
It's got metal-- Put it in my pile over there. It is from 1927. That's a trumpet, resell it. Why can't we recycle it? No. Dad, what is in of this stuff? MATT PAXTON: But are
all of those going? All of those are going,
right, the cameras? I think they should. These are all cameras. Here's what I don't understand. Why did you buy
all these cameras? What was your idea here? Because I wanted to
protect my property. He's so concerned
about his stuff. But if you didn't
own this stuff, it wouldn't be a problem. You wouldn't have to worry about
it because people are stealing it. If you just didn't
have it, then you won't have to worry about it. And that would eliminate
the entire problem. Corey is the secret
to this solution. He is the only one that actually
has the sense in this family to make a good decision. Who are you going
to sell this to? A knob cover? Are you serious? Scott is blaming Corey
for all his problems. Of course, Corey
has done nothing but try to solve these problems. I'm not going to get
nothing done with him around. Well, y'all are going to
have to learn to work together. So he's staying. I put it back there, and
he's working against me. It's a very typical
hoarder thing, he needs to be in control. Scott needs to be the man. If Corey does it, Scott
feels like a failure. Just give it to re-sale.
See what they do. - You can't re-sell this.
- It's got a tag. Come on.
- It doesn't matter. That whole thing is $1. It's got to be donated.
- Load it please. No, load it.
Get out of here. OK, so I'm going to
put these in a box. So you get we care, and you
get we understand you, right? Right. Next negotiation,
let's talk about how we can take the whole thing
quickly, whittle it down-- Right. --to small things that
represent who you are. And get rid of the
things that are clogging the arteries of this family. This is clogging the
arteries of the family. I want dinners here. I don't want it covered in
mouse [bleep] and cicada husks. OK. Kathleen, you're
coming with me. Let's go here. Oh, my god. Oh, wow. Oh, oh, oh, oh, sweetheart. Oh, sweetheart. Oh. KATHLEEN: Oh, my god. It's coming back to life. Oh, my god. You're coming back to life. It's like we're
resuscitating you. It almost looks
like when we moved in. Both of Kathleen's children
want the house cleared. They want a safe
place for their mom. Most importantly, they
want their mom back. I'm starting to feel like
she's going to make it. Oh, my god. GARY: The more progress
you see, the more you want to keep going. And the faster we get
it done, the faster she can move on with her life. It's not the stuff. So let's go.
- OK, all right. - Let's take the motivation.
- Let's go. Donate, donate, toss. Outside, everybody outside. Hey, Mom. A frozen owl in the freezer. What are we going
to do with this? We need to make a decision. I mean, an action plan. Because that can't
stay anymore in there. I swear on everything that
I will actually donate these to a university, either one. On your grandkids?
KATHLEEN: Yes. GARY: So let's just be
clear, the only thing left in the refrigerator or
the freezer, are frozen owls? What makes that owl so special
that the university would want that owl? It was my job to face
Kathleen head on and say, you cannot keep an
owl in a freezer. This is not a way
of honoring nature. I want you to understand
your thinking, OK? What are you trying to do? Make its-- make its
death less meaningless. SUZANNE CHABAUD: Yes. And make me feel a little
better about it getting hit by a semi. I was heartbroken to see what
that heap of feathers was, because I knew how long it had
to live to get to be that size. When a person can cry
from the depths of her being because an owl was killed
on the side of a road, tells me there's more going on
than just the death of an owl. I am convinced
that part of this, for you, is the untimely
death of your husband. Yeah, I just can't
imagine 41 years old, and the fact that he
hasn't had the opportunity to see his children grow up. He was such a big
part of their lives. SUZANNE CHABAUD: If we get
more to the core of the grief and the acceptance that
life does include accidents, that everything cannot be
protected and preserved, if we can bring
that home to her, I think we will make great
strides in her hoarding. Who took all the lighters? I did, three boxes. Don't you touch nothing
without my permission. Don't do nothing unless
you get permission. [bleep], Keri. Don't touch my stuff. What do you need
40,000 lighters for? What is going on? This family has been operating
in a very dysfunctional communication pattern for years. Ultimately, yes, you get say. But you're going to be forced to
have to make harder decisions. So let's do this, I'm going
to let you three with Joanne work together as a team. I'm just going to kind of
step out on the sidelines, and let you guys see if you
can communicate and move through making the decisions. Set that one next to
that one over there too. We're trashing this. Trash. They go right on the
back of that semi. Scott's parents have been
on the truck taking stuff off. Grandma and grandpa have been up
here digging through the pile, taking stuff off the sell truck. COREY: Off this truck? Yep, hiding it
around the corner. And they've been going through
the pile of stuff over here, and relocating it in the barn. My mother, she is definitely
a hoarder, and [inaudible].. Sorry, Mother. Grandma, we're
scrapping that to recycle. ROBIN ZASIO: When you're
a compulsive hoarder, you oftentimes see
value in everything. That's what's happening
with his parents. And of course, that's
what's happening with Scott. That's to earn money for
your son to get out of debt. They don't have any
room to put it either. I know. So that's what I'm
not understanding here. If the parents continue
to take his stuff, there's risk that we're
just wasting our time here. We were going to sell that.
And they took it. You're not going to sell it. You were going to junk it. No, it was right
here to go in the sale. You see, if you're
just taking all the stuff and relocating it
to your house-- No, no. --someday he's just going to
have to get rid of it again. No, not all his stuff. We saw you digging
through this pile of stuff that he's going to sell. You didn't take nothing off
his trailer for sure, thanks. She did. No, no, I did not. Of course she did. Are you guys struggling
with any hoarding problems? Not really. ROBIN ZASIO: Not really? They are severe compulsive
hoarders as well. And they're enabling him. And I don't think they truly
see how serious this problem is. I want something to drink. And I want my cigarette. I gotta leave for right now, OK? We've got the
auction guys here. We're going to go start
pulling stuff out right now. And they're going to be brutally
honest on what can and can't sell. This is our best chance to
make as much money as possible for Scott to make
a dent in his debt. This is a good time of the
year to sell these, Scott. You've got hunting
season coming right now. Sell them. Sell them? Sell them. Sell it. There's gotta be a lot
of valuable items in there. SCOTT: I'm doing
pretty good, aren't I? ROBIN ZASIO: You're
doing awesome, Scott. I thought he was
going to resist us. I thought that he was going
to hold onto more stuff. But he's taking the stuff
that is of value, putting it on the truck to be auctioned. - Tools, we can sell those, yes.
- Sell the whole lot. There's brand new
[inaudible] and everything. These old tape stereos, can
you sell them, or do they-- Nobody's buying those anymore. It's all outdated. That's brand new in the box. But it's a VCR. ROBIN ZASIO: He was convincing
us that entire barn was filled with good stuff. And as we started
to dig through it, he began to see that that,
in fact, wasn't the case. SCOTT: Those are brand
new batteries, boys. If you look at your dates
on there, I mean, it's-- It's brand new in the box. But they're old. Doesn't matter. They're telling you-- these are
the experts-- they're telling you they can't sell it, Scott. I can't believe that, you
guys, brand new batteries. MATT PAXTON: They're
not brand new. They're 20 years old. As we started digging and
digging, further and further, we realized there
wasn't much of any value there that people would
really want to buy. Scott, let's have this
conversation real quick. Come here.
So they're just eyeing this. Yeah, this is not
their cup of tea. Well, it's not
anybody's cup of tea. How much, percentage wise, guys,
do you think you could actually sell? At the most, 5% of it. I mean, there's a
few items in there. But most of it is not saleable. I mean, this is the barn
we thought the money was in. There's some
good stuff in here. They can sell that table. I don't know. Can you sell the table? It's a $5 to $10 table. By the time you move
it, and try to sell it. This can be donated. He's got 500 properties. He has millions of dollars
in taxes he's gotta pay. We need him to take it a step
further, and fix his finances. I'm just going to
lay it on the table. This is the only way
to solve this problem. You have to give Corey
power of attorney. The only way we can
get him out of trouble is to give his son
power of attorney-- KERI: I agree, Father.
- --of all your properties. And you have to give
him access to the money that you can't get. Because you know
you'll spend it. You've even told me that. The best way to do this
is to get Corey in charge, so he can sell things as
a lot, and do big sales. And get the money, and get
the taxes off the books. You've got a chance if
you get back to even. If you keep going at the
same pace, this is over. You will lose. And you'll get jail time. KERI: Do you get
that, Dad, or no? You have to accept some
losses on the properties. And just take what we can get. He has deals, people
ready to give you cash for those properties.
JOANNE: Yep. And you won't let him. And you won't let
him take the cash. The three of you, you
and your two children, need to make that
decision right now. COREY: Do you feel
comfortable with signing this power of attorney? There is no pressure,
whatsoever, to sign it. Signing that power of
attorney, it really puts a lot of pressure on me. But he's 60, and had
two heart attacks, and open-heart surgery. I'm 32.
I can handle the pressure. I'm ready for the challenge. I gave power attorney to
Corey because he'll maybe get something
going a lot faster, instead of my procrastination
coming back at me. ROBIN ZASIO: We knew we were not
going to clear 500 properties. We came to get the
process started. And we did. At the end of the day, the
fact that he could acknowledge that he needed to give
up control to his son, I think was amazing. All right. Good work. And get to work, will you? I didn't think you
were going to do it. That is the right thing.
I'm proud of you. I'm so proud of you, Dad. Oh good god, they're
my little treasures. When people die suddenly,
people do do crazy things. They will keep an ashtray
with a cigarette in it that the person smoked. You wanted everything that
his life touched, right? It was taken so suddenly. There was nothing left. And this is really sad. But that's all I have. I guess it was kind of nuts. No, I think people do
all kinds of things when a person dies that other
people might think are crazy. And you have a right
to do that, OK? What we don't think is normal
is that you still have it. He did live. He was alive. He was in your life. But is your husband
in this ashtray? No. KRISTEN: I think it was critical
that my mom deal with my dad's stuff. I mean, she locked
that stuff away. She was-- cigarette
butts in a Ziploc bag because she didn't want to lose
one more piece of who he was. You know, that was one of the
top three cathartic moments, I'm pretty sure, of
this whole venture. SUZANNE CHABAUD: 24 years
ago, there were two children who lost their father. They needed a mom to
enter into their lives, and to help them through
this grief process. Instead, mom just froze in time. Let her be the mother,
she couldn't be for you when this happened. Yeah, I'm so sorry
about that, honey. It's OK. I'm sorry about him leaving. [inaudible]. This is their time
to grieve in a way that they were never
able to grieve before. We should burn this
in the front yard. Welcome to Kathleen's
nature center. KRISTEN: I'm thrilled she
could have her own place for her nature collection. And if she wants to have these
white hornet nests that took her 25 years to find, hell
yeah, let her celebrate and be who she is without shame. Oh, my god. I've never seen them out
in the open like this. I don't think I could
begin to tell you how buried an interest this was. Because I was always
embarrassed and fearful. Eyes have been rolled at
me more times than not. This makes it look
completely sane, and like a teacher, an explorer, an
adventurer, who has collected along the way to showcase what
is magical about this earth. Good job. Good job. Good job. From an organizing
perspective, we got so much done. This is a four bedroom house. And we cleared the whole
darn thing, and cleaned it. Kathleen was able to let
go of 6 tons of stuff. Hands down, this is the
fastest cleanup I've ever seen. It looks as good as it
did when we first moved in. I think my dad's
definitely around. I think he had a hand
in a lot of this. I know that's wacky, but I do. I mean, he's everywhere. He's in every room. And he's in all of
us all the time. KATHLEEN: I think if
he wasn't ever at peace because of what's going
on, or not going on here, he's probably at peace now.
