But  this  did  not make  of  her  a prig,  she  was  a gay,  happy  child,  full  of  life  and  high spirits,  and  when  Mircea  appeared  early  in  the  year  1913,  Ileana  loved him  with  motherly  ardour  and  Mircea  adored  Ileana  more  than  anyone on  this  earth; more  than  his  mother,  more  than  his  nurse.

Ileana was the organizer of the Girl Reserves of the Red Cross, and of the first school of Social Work in Romania.

The sovereign hoped that during her stay there she could find suitable husbands for her two eldest daughters, especially Elisabeta, already aged twenty-five.

On the way back, they made a brief stop in Switzerland, where they found the Greek royal family, who lived in exile since the deposition of King Constantine I during the Great War.

The Swiss visit also resulted in the engagement of Ileana's eldest brother Crown Prince Carol to Princess Helen of Greece.

An engagement to the Crown Prince of Italy was reported, but denied by Marie, and rumors of a marriage to the Tsar of Bulgaria were debunked by its royal court.

Queen Marie favored the match, being pleased by the English blood and wealth of Alexander's family.

[6] After her husband was conscripted into the Luftwaffe, Ileana established a hospital for wounded Romanian soldiers at their castle, Sonnburg, outside Vienna, Austria.

The years from 1950 to 1961 were spent lecturing against communism, working with the Romanian Orthodox Church in the United States, writing two books: I Live Again, a memoir of her last years in Romania,[8] and Hospital of the Queen's Heart, describing the establishment and running of the hospital.

In 1961, Ileana entered the Orthodox Monastery of Our Lady of All Protection/ Notre Dame de Toute Protection, in Bussy-en-Othe, France.