It was the early 1960s by then and no one knew what to do about her. The words "mental illness" were never used. There were no resources, and no support, only stigma and silence. My father was mostly absent, preoccupied with his work and his social life. As a result, my mother’s illness went untreated and her health continued to deteriorate. I’m told Princess Grace came to visit us at our home on Long Island when I was a baby and that she held me in her arms, but she lived so far away. During their years of separation, my mother wrote letters to Grace and she, in turn, wrote long letters to my mother, the envelopes arriving from the palace stamped with the gold and red seal of Monaco. Even so, Grace could have had very little idea of how impossible our lives had become as a result of my mother’s illness.