Mother writes about Whitney's drug problems in new memoir

Nearly one year after Whitney's shocking death, her mother often asks herself: "Could I have saved her somehow?"

In the book 'Remembering Whitney', Cissy, 79, writes candidly about her daughter's downward spiral that led to her death by drowning in a hotel bathtub with traces of cocaine still in her system, reported People magazine.

"She started partying and she didn't really know how to stop. I used to wonder what she was doing at night, where she was."

But when she tried to contact her, the 'I Will Always Love You' hitmaker often didn't return her call.

"Whitney hid from me," said Cissy. And when she did see her, she was often afraid to confront her daughter. Shocked at her skeletal appearance at the Michael Jackson tribute concert in 2001, she never expressed concern.

"What was the point? I didn't want her to run completely away from me."

Cissy doesn't believe former husband Bobby Brown was the cause.

"I blame him for the way he treated her, but I don't blame him for her drug problems." Still, she added, "He was no help to her at all."