Her husband, Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark, decribed her as     
          "lovely and fascinating", yet still felt guilty of having taken her        
          away from her family and the splendour of St.Petersburg. Her               
          mother-in-law, Queen Olga of Greece, also a Romanow, always felt a         
          loss at having left Russia, but Helena reacted differently and took to     
          her new life in Greece much more easily.                                   
             Their early married life was mostly spent at Tatoi, the Royal           
          Family's estate, and here their first two daughters were born, the         
          third, Marina, in Athens. This third birth was traumatic and Princess      
          Nicholas (Helena) was ill for a long time. Prince Nicholas would later     
          say about Marina: "She was a very dear baby. She nearly cost her           
          mother her life".                                                          
             Marina was born in the newly completed Nicholas Palace in Athens.       
          More a mansion than a palace, it had been a wedding-present from Tsar      
          Alexander III. The Palace was regarded modern, elegant and with such       
          luxuries as central heating, hot and cold water, and several bathrooms     
          each fitted with heated towel-rails.                                       
             They lived here in peace until in 1917 the Greek revolution forced      
          them to leave Greece, the first of several such exiles. The next three     
          years were spent between Zurich and Lucerne. Nicholas and Helena had       
          to live strictly within their means. Assuming the pseudonym "Nicholas      
          le Prince", Nicholas started to paint and his paintings sold well.         
             In December 1920, their exile ended and they returned to the            
          Nicholas Palace, but this return was to be shortlived. In 1922, Helena     
          and her daughters went to Cannes where her eldest daughter, Olga,          
          became engaged to Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark. However, his          
          addiction to alcohol soon became all too evident and their engagement      
          was broken off.                                                            
              Also in 1922 the family went into exile again, this time first to      
          Paris and then to Palermo in Italy. Still they didn't settle down,         
          however, but continued their travels. In February 1923 they went to        
          the Tirol, then to Florence, visiting palaces and museums. The summer      
          season was spent in England where the English Princess Victoria hoped      
          the young and beautiful Olga might be a match for the Prince of Wales      
          (Edward VIII). However, it was Prince Paul of Yugoslavia who fell in       
          love with the twenty-year-old Olga, proposed, and was accepted. On 22      
          October 1923, they married in Belgrade.                                    
              For a short period in 1922 the monarchy had been restored, but from    
          December 1923 until November 1935 Greece was to be a republic. In          
          April 1941 the Greek King, George II, was once more forced to leave,       
          again to be restored in September 1946, but only to die seven months       
          later.                                                                     
             However, in 1923 Prince and Princess Nicholas decided to make Paris     
          their home. They let the Nicholas Palace in Athens and it has since        
          become an annex of the "Grand Bretagne", Athen's leading hotel. Once       
          more the work of "Nicholas le Prince" appeared. Nicholas shared his        
          interest, especially with his youngest daughter, Marina.                   
             In Paris, Princess Nicholas involved herself with relief agencies       
          established to help Russian refugees. Deeply concerned with the plight     
          of the children of these refugees, she founded a home at                   
          St.Germain-en-Laye. It was to be home for children of servants as well     
          as those of aristocrats. No social differences were made. Twice a year     
          she would organize a ball to raise money for her children's home.          
             All their lives their links with the English Royal Family had been      
          close. Nicholas regularly sent King George V, a first cousin, naughty      
          stories and limericks, which George V liked so long as the point of        
          such stories was obvious.                                                  
             In 1934 they were present in England for the engagement and wedding     
          of Marina to the Duke of Kent. Only four years later, Prince Nicholas,     
          his health having deteriorated unexpectedly, died in Athens on 8           
          February 1938 in the Hotel Grand Bretagne. Whispering to his wife and      
          elder daughter, "I am happy to die in my own beloved country", he          
          slipped into a coma and a few days later was buried at Tatoi.              
             Princess Nicholas was then taken care of for several months by her      
          eldest daughter before being settled into a villa in Athens. Here she      
          remained until she died of a heart attack, having survived her husband     
          by nineteen years.                      
 

Source: Leo van de Pas