For many months after my father’s death, Adelind was very cold to me. Her daughters, save Elsebeth, had never been quite so friendly, but they took their mother’s new distaste as freedom to make my life miserable. Margarete’s seventeenth birthday approached and she desperately needed to find a man, according to Adelind. No expenses were spared to get him either.

Thousands of dollars were spent on buying Margarete an entirely new wardrobe of gowns and combs and shoes and hats and jewels. Parties were thrown almost every Saturday and there was always the best to be had of everything. Whence I began to wonder as to the financial state of the family and where all the money was coming from, I sent a letter to my father’s lawyer. I received word back from him that explained that Adelind had told him that I wanted her to have complete access to all the Lennon accounts. I was furious! But it had been her money ever since she married my father.

I chose not to fight that battle and, looking back, maybe I should have.