Thank you Ms. Fuller. My mother ended up dying and had dementia and then Alzheimer's. This was before I understood that she was hoarding. My father died when I was ten. She raised my sister and me alone thereafter. She had quit her jobs to raise us. Luckily, her attorney set up a trust and we had money coming in, but when she got married again, that money stopped. Her marriage lasted 6 months. I think at that point, she must have been inherently frightened. She was an artist. She wasn't trained to do anything else. Anyway, as she went through life, I wasn't able to support her. I don't think I was completely aware of her situation. All I knew was that I wanted to leave Hawaii once I graduated. I did that, but then she was stuck there. The hotel she was living in eventually terminated her agreement and she ended up in a shelter. She tried being a nanny, but I bet she wasn't able to do that. She fell on her face on the way to work and bled. Anyway, she finally made her way over to us and we found her a place to live, but it was in a bad part of town and I was worried about her. She eventually found independent living, but, and this is the point, I bet she was incredibly worried along this path. She was born in the 30's. Her mother put her in foster homes. Her uncle, and later her boss, raped her. Her brothers were sent away. Her father died when she was 2, and her mother died just two hours away when she was 18. How do you process these experiences except frightfully? Oddly, she never complained nor asked for very much. I watched her die after she stopped eating for three weeks. It absolutely crushed me as she could not speak, but I saw in her eyes the struggle. I felt like I was a let down. I talked openly as to whether or not this was the end and she must have heard me. She dedicated her whole life to me and my sister. We were intuitive about each other's feelings. This idea of yours makes complete sense to me. She was never able to add, substract, or multiply. That incompetence must have frightened her too. I begin to understand my mother's plight. Thank you.