CJ Omololu's Dirty Little Secrets

Omololu's Dirty Little Secrets tells the story of Lucy Tompkins, who's mother is a hoarder. Lucy's mother wasn't always a hoarder until her father abandoned them.  Since then, Lucy's life has been surrounded by trash and her fear of outsiders seeing how they live.

Lucy holds on to the fact that she only has two more years to live with her mother.  Then she can move out like the rest of her siblings and have a normal life. Lucy finds her mother dead, in the trash-stuffed hallway, of natural causes.

Then Lucy's problems become compounded: she has to call the police, letting the entire neighborhood (and media) see how her mother has made them live, or she can find a way to cover it up. One could argue that Lucy is, in a sense, also a hoarder because she refuses to ask anyone for help or confide in someone.  She holds this secret with her, and lets it decay her psyche.

After finishing the novel, I am left with one question.  What would I do in Lucy's situation?