In 1956 Helen consented for Arthur Gould Lee to publish her biography. At this point, her life was marked by financial difficulties which continued to worsen over time. Despite still being deprived of income by the Romanian authorities, the queen mother economically supported her son, and also helped him to find jobs, first as a pilot in Switzerland, then as a broker on Wall Street. Helen also supported the studies of her eldest granddaughter Margareta, and even welcomed her at Villa Sparta for a year before she entered a British university. To do this, Helen was forced to sell her assets one by one and in the early 1970s, she hardly had anything left. In 1973, she mortgaged her residence and three years later, she sold the two Greco paintings that she had brought with her from Romania in 1947.