Couple buried alive in trash cut off contact with family, friends

May 25, 2010 2:33 PM

City building inspector Lauren Mosley photographs the kitchen at a home in the 1500 block of East 69th Street where an elderly couple were found buried under mounds of trash. (Alex Garcia/Tribune)

David O'Neal hadn't seen his sister for six to eight years.

Then Monday night, her neighbor called him with unbelievable news: Thelma Gaston and her husband Jesse --- both in their 70s -- had been found buried alive under mounds of trash and debris in their Grand Crossing home, possibly for as long as three weeks.

"I was surprised. I wanted to come to Chicago as soon as possible," said O'Neal, who lives in the Seattle area. "I love and care about her."
A fire official on the scene said the couple had not been heard from for three weeks, and Thelma Gaston, 75, had injuries that resembled rat bites. Both she and Jesse Gaston, 76, were taken to Jackson Park Hospital in critical condition, but a nurse there said this morning their conditions were improved, though they still were in intensive care.

Thelma Gaston may have fallen through the debris and become trapped. When her husband tried to come to her aid, he apparently became trapped as well, according to Fire Department spokesman Kevin MacGregor.

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http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/05/elderly-couple-trapped-weeks-in-mound-of-debris.html

Let's party when you get to the 1,000 post club, but it's so much more fun to belong to the mile high club.

This extreme hoarding is far more prevalent than I'd guessed. What a nightmare.

many cases of drug addiction, alcoholism, shopping addictions, hoarding, and other compulsive/unhealthy behaviors, that these behaviors are almost the norm.

I think we have a very very sick society and I think it's very hard to stay healthy and well in such a society - hence the high rates of depression and other mental illness.

Create a civilization that makes a few happy, and the rest get shades of misery.
Start mass-market advertising and imply in those ads that happiness is found in things, if you will but buy them. Show lots of happy, smiling purchasers.

In some cases a trauma such as a death or a divorce will trigger the hoarding. People sometimes build a literal wall of stuff to protect themselves emotionally, but it just brings more misery.

every once in awhile, people who are on the far end of the disorganized spectrum. Yet, I never see the media going after people who are on the other end of the spectrum: Excessive neatness. Open nearly any magazine that features inside photos of homes, and at least among the ones I've seen, about 99-100% are excessively neat. Think of the phrase, "picture perfect".

If traumas are behind extreme disorganization, one wonders what the trauma was to create such a seeming preponderance of excessive neatness.

we aren't even "citizens" of this country anymore we're referred to now as "consumers". :-(

I talked to someone today who takes care of animals for older people. She told me about an elderly lady with 9 indoor cats living in a trailer. The place is a mess. She stopped cleaning the litter boxes a few years ago and now the pet sitter is doing that, plus making sure the lady is getting her meals on wheels. But the lady wont be moved into assisted living.

How can anyone live like that?