In September 1940 Michael was restored to the throne. Now aged eighteen, he recalled his mother to Romania. She received the designation Queen Mother of Romania (Regina-mamÄ Elena). During World War II she devoted herself to the care of the wounded. For her efforts to rescue Romanian Jews from the Nazi Germans, she was awarded the status of Righteous Among the Nations.
As a cousin of the bridegroom, she was a leading guest at the 1947 wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
In December 1947 Michael was forced to abdicate. Helen returned to San Domenico, at Villa Sparta. Later she lived at Lausanne and Florence.
Helen died at the age of 86 in Lausanne in 1982.
Read more about this topic: Helen Of Greece And Denmark
Famous quotes containing the words queen and/or mother:
“They will mark the stone-battlements
And the circle of them
With a bright stain.
They will cast out the dead
A sight for Priam’s queen to lament
And her frightened daughters.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“Christianity only hopes. It has hung its harp on the willows, and cannot sing a song in a strange land. It has dreamed a sad dream, and does not yet welcome the morning with joy. The mother tells her falsehoods to her child, but, thank heaven, the child does not grow up in its parent’s shadow. Our mother’s faith has not grown with her experience. Her experience has been too much for her. The lesson of life was too hard for her to learn.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)