this is very well written...
My Mother's Garden
Written by Dawn Sarnecky
Saturday, 26 January 2008

Film: My Mother's Garden
Written and Directed by: Cynthia Lester
Category: Documentary

One man's trash is another man's treasure is an underlying theme in this film. The documentary, "My Mother's Garden," takes a sometimes painfully close look into the lives of a sister and her two brothers who are affected by their mother's disease of compulsive hoarding. This documentary was particularly easy to relate to because this disease is in the beginning stages with several members of my extended family. Hoarding disease in my family may not exist today to the extreme that Eugenia Lester and her family experienced it, but I can see where it starts and how, after viewing this film, it can end.

Eugenia Lester grew up in post-war Poland depression with nothing to her name (along with the rest of the people in her country). Her father and mother abandoned her at a very young age, which alone can cause a child to have severe mental health issues in latter years. Her aunt, an Auschwitz survivor, took on the sole responsibility to care for her. Eventually Eugenia was able to immigrate to New York City.

I believe in order to comprehend the complexity of this film one must first understand the disease itself. Hoarding disorder is when the mind lacks the capability to throw away or discard any item. Those individuals whom have this disease feel if they discard something, they are discarding a part of themselves. In the case of Eugenia Lester, her traumatic childhood and growing up in post-war Poland were major contributing factors to the disease. If one grows up with nothing and is forced to live in unimaginable conditions as humanly possible, the mind automatically goes into defense mode and takes over with feelings of anguish and disgust because they have already been through the worst of the worst. The human psyche tries to replace those feelings and sees value in everything, even though it may have lost value to someone else.

It is a vicious circle and hard to break. Eugenia's daughter, Cynthia, took her to New York while her three brothers gutted the house from top to bottom to try and make it look like a house again or the city was going to take it from her. Even while Eugenia spent time with her daughter in New York, she would still hoard things in her room. When she returned to her California home and found all of her possessions had been thrown away, she went through severe depression and withdrew herself from society, even more so now that all of her possessions were gone. Eugenia finally moved into a nursing home and found purpose again. I also think because she was no longer able to nurture her children and they had long since moved away, she was able to find new purpose in taking care of those who were not able to take care of themselves.

Moving someone with hoarding disease can be very traumatic, even pushing the person to unhealthy emotional realms and actions. It is best to have a mental health team involved in decisions and treatment.

I think this film takes a fresh and vivid approach to a disease which over 2 million Americans suffer from, but yet there is a seeming lack of awareness about information and research about this disease. How can you solve a problem or begin to tackle it if you do not know it exists? On the other hand, maybe those that recognize it have chosen to ignore it and let those that have the disease go on living their lives because they don't have the hope and faith that they might be able to change. In my experience it's the latter of the two.

The Children of Hoarders website is a wealth of information and support resources for hoarders and their families. The OCF, or Obsessive Compulsive Foundation is also a great resource.

I personally enjoyed this film and I have since become fascinated with learning more about hoarding disease. It would be interesting to see documentation of Eugenia's progress in three, six or nine months. I believe Cynthia Lester is extremely brave in letting her audience have such an intimate look into her personal life and family. She is an up and coming director whose first film certainly leaves me wanting more, and eager to experience her next effort.