Lady, you don't need us, you need a miracle

He says he really told her that, but I'm sure he didn't, otherwise she'd report him to his boss. You know how people hate to hear the truth. He is a service worker who regularly sees the inside of people's homes, from big mansion to shabby duplex to apartments, from attic to basement to garage. This one, he noted shaking his head, looked like a herd of cattle had been driven through the living room. Mud. Animal feces. Filthy clothes. Bad odors. Trim and weather stripping broken or missing. The home was built in 1995--nice area, working father, stay at home mom. Two young children. If he'd been an animal protection officer and the children were pets, he probably could have removed them. He says he waited after giving her an estimate while she called her husband. He could hear him screaming at her through the phone from the other side of the room.

Maybe one of those marriage 101 workshops the federal government is funding could help. Or a daily cleaning service. Or that English nanny we see on TV. Slobs come in all classes and income brackets. A friend of mine was a "home manager," she cleaned, baby sat and ran errands for a wealthy family in Dublin with 4 rotten to the core children (both parents were professional--doctor and lawyer). She couldn't stand it. She quit because each day she came back to work and it was a worse mess than the day before, even after she'd put everything in order. She was told she couldn't remove the pet dog from the kitchen counters where it would eat the butter. Some people are beyond slobdom. They do need a miracle.