Almost a year after Whitney Houston’s death, gospel legend Cissy Houston is still haunted by terrible memories of her daughter’s drug-addled madness.
In a serialization of “Remembering Whitney: My Story of Love, Loss, and the Night the Music Stopped,” Houston, 79, shares her shock and horror at finding her beautiful daughter living in a squalid drug den.
The 48-year-old singer, who died Feb. 11 in a Beverly Hills hotel bathtub with traces of cocaine in her system, reached an all-time low in 2005, according to her mother.
“I flew to Atlanta and rang the door of the house she shared with her husband, Bobby Brown,” Houston writes, according to an excerpt of her book serialized in The Sun.
“I knew if she was in half as bad a state as that house, she really was in trouble. I’d never seen any house that looked like this one, much less a multimillion-dollar home.
“I stood in shock. It was dirty and messy, but that wasn’t it. The things I saw sent a chill through me. Somebody had spray-painted the walls and door with big glaring eyes and strange faces. Evil eyes, staring out like a threat. Who would do such a thing? It seemed crazy.
“In another room there was a big framed photo of Nippy (the pop singer’s nickname) — but someone had cut Nippy’s head out. It was beyond disturbing, seeing my daughter’s face cut out like that. It was frightening.”
Her daughter refused to come down, Houston writes in the book that hits stores Tuesday, and screamed at her to go.
Houston did, but only to get a court order. She returned with police and forced her shaking and incoherent daughter into rehab — but ultimately, it didn’t save her.
“Eventually she stopped being angry at me and later told people I saved her life. But I’m not sure she ever forgave me. I think some part of her couldn’t stand that I had made her reveal her worst side to me,” her mom says.
Houston admits she never knew exactly what sparked her daughter’s demons.
“She started partying and she didn’t really know how to stop,” Houston wrote, according to People.com.