What is the best way to deal with people who have poor hygiene?

My mother has chosen to stop going to their church (a pretty nice, comforting place where they have been attending for over 40 years) because someone who wants to sit next to her in their class has poor hygiene.

I happen to know this individual. In fact, when I was a pastor in another church eighteen years ago, I married this woman to her husband. And I know that their house is the source as they have, in recent years, aquired several dogs, cats, other animals, that the house is filthy and unfit for visitors.

Its not an overwhelming stench on her but it is bad enough that you wouldn’t want to sit next to, or directly in front or behind this person or want to be in a car with them. I think it has also damaged their advancement in their professional careers.

I also know someone else who wants to talk to me constantly, and I wouldn’t mind so much listening to them, except they always have moderately bad breath. Enough that you have to inhale strategically while trying to not make it obvious. But when you come across as avoiding them it not the impression you want to make. You wouldn’t mind being social at all except for the breath issue.

If any of you have experienced this, you know that such people are absolutely clueless and never seem to take hints. In fact, some might not even believe it if you told them directly and would be insulted. If they did, they still would be hurt or feel ‘put in their place.’

Even if one has a malodorous dwelling place. I believe that wearing clothes that have been recently washed might curtail the problem. As far as oral hygiene goes, there are multifarious products one ought to use.

I am not talking about conditions like trimethylaminuria, or things beyond a person’s control. I’m talking about things just bad enough that you avoid or curtail contact, that can be remedied, that evidently people just don’t get.

How can you approach this sensitive issue without creating a rift or further embarrassment?