Dear Maggie,

My mother lives in squalor. I don’t know what to do about it. She’s a wonderful woman, but she’s spent her entire life living according to what my father wants, and he’s always been content with a hovel. An unfinished, unstable shack, that would probably be condemned if it wasn’t in a backwards, middle of nowhere place where you can basically set up house in a spare milk crate and no one says a word. Wood heat, curtains hanging in doorways instead of doors, unfinished rough wood on the floors, or old, torn-up linoleum. Piles of junk everywhere. Not garbage, but junk, trinkets, pictures, statues, useless stuff, which my father collects. So much of it he doesn’t even know what’s there anymore.

If you’ve ever seen the show, “Hoarders,” that’s what my mom has around her, except that if you moved all the junk out, there wouldn’t be a livable house hiding underneath. I know she’s not happy. What should I do to make her put her foot down and change her life?

Signed,

Caring Son