Liverpool
Being a part of Best's family meant Mona was accorded respect on Merseyside, which included meeting well-known sports personalities of the time and receiving preferential treatment when booking a table in a restaurant, or a seat in the theatre. The Bests lived for a short time at the Best family's large home in West Derby, which was called Ellerslie, but Mona fell out with John Best's sister, Edna, who resented her brother's choice of wife. The family then moved to a small flat on Cases Street, Liverpool (above Ma Edgerton's public house) but Mona was always looking for a large house—as she had been used to in India—instead of a smaller semi-detached house, which were prevalent in the area. After moving to a three-bedroom house in Princess Drive, Mona persuaded her parents, Thomas and Mary Shaw, to leave India and live with them in Liverpool.
After moving to 17 Queenscourt Road in 1948—where the Bests lived for nine years—Rory saw a large Victorian house for sale at 8 Hayman's Green in 1954, and told his mother about it. The Best family claim that Mona then pawned all her jewellery and placed a bet on a horse that was ridden by Lester Piggott in the 1954 Epsom Derby, called "Never Say Die", which won at 33–1, and used her winnings to buy the house in 1957. Note: to place the bet, Mona would have had to travel more than 220 miles from Liverpool to Epsom (as bets were only allowed at race tracks at the time) or place the bet with an illegal bookmaker in Liverpool. 8 Hayman's Green had previously been owned by the West Derby Conservative Club, and was unlike many other family houses in Liverpool, as the house (built around 1860) was set back from the road, had 15 bedrooms and an acre of land. All the rooms were painted dark green or brown, and the garden was totally overgrown. Mona decorated the living room in an Oriental style, which reflected her own upbringing in India. She had previously tried to interest her husband in other houses, including a Formby lighthouse, a windmill in St. Helens and a circular house in Southport, which Best disliked and rejected.
During 1961–1962, Neil Aspinall became good friends with Pete and subsequently rented a room in the Bests' home. Aspinall became romantically involved with Mona, who was 17 years his senior. During this period, Aspinall fathered a child by Mona: Vincent "Roag" Best. Roag was born in late July 1962, and just three weeks later, on 16 August 1962, the Beatles dismissed Pete. Roag's birth certificate was registered on 31 August 1962, stating his name to be Vincent Rogue Best, and his father as being John Best. Mona and Best had separated in the late 1950s or early 1960s.