Originally Posted by kwhite
Ladies we all know that if our family member came into our quilt world and said "let me help you organize" they would be met with a (most likely) vicious "I DONT NEED YOUR HELP" and would run for the hills. We mostly are very protective over our world. I know I am. Somtimes it takes a stranger to get through to us. And as for feeling embarrassed for her, she signed the release and knew what was going to happen. It was her idea to quilt in the garage room. i think the family did the right thing to make her see what impact her generousity had on them. Sometimes we lose sight and need a "Gibbs" to the back of the head.
THIS!! My mother is what I call a "neat" hoarder. She has TONS of stuff but 50% of it is all neatly put away in boxes and cabinets and bins in different rooms of the house. The other half is "neatly" piled up along the sides of rooms not used often. I can't count the number of times I, my brother, and/or my dad has tried to help her purge the stuff. 4 years ago she agreed to a yard sale. It took 3 weeks to convince her to put out just 4 tables worth of stuff (she could easily have filled 20-30), and even then it was like pulling teeth to convince her to sell each and every item we'd pull randomly from a pile. I'm talking about items like never-worn shoes that had a receipt in the box with a 1997 date and she still had an excuse why she didn't want to sell it. It became too frustrating and disappointing for all of us.
So please, those of you who feel her kids and husband could have helped her organize vs. just complained about it, please know it is more likely than not they HAVE tried...many many times. But especially when it's a "Mama rules the roost" situation, it is very difficult to go against that. Even when I look around my own house, I have to own the fact that 90% of the "clutter" or "stuff" is mine, not my husband's. Through all of my discussions with mom (who I adore and am very close to btw) I had to stay cognizant of the fact this was HER house, not mine. And also that my hardheadedness and big mouth didn't exactly skip a generation, LOL. :D