Fanny greatly respected her mother and noted her wisdom. She was very aware of her mother’s mental limitations but celebrated with her when she felt well. Fanny shows this when she recalls her mother’s reaction to her father’s return from a nine month trip abroad.

“He [Will] said Father was at the Astor House and they would be home “Friday.” How busy, how happy, I felt. Mother seemed so much happier after the telegraph, she said that when the ship had been so many days on the Ocean she could not but feel the greatest anxiety, for how did we know after all, if he had come or if he had come safely? I now understand all and saw that what a young person like myself might never think of was very natural in one of her age, and while I rejoiced with myself I also did with her when these anxieties were thrown aside by the last telegraph.” Dec 30, 1859