Still mourning the death of her mother 10 days earlier, she was left alone with two children, a half-built house, a six-figure mortgage, a flood of bills and questions that would not go away about why her husband put a stranger ahead of his family.
However, although some lenders have increased the amount they are willing to lend in recent weeks, many buyers are still struggling to get loans and the numbers entering the housing market remain historically low, with the Bank's figures showing mortgage approval figures down by 22% year-on-year.
And the spikes I've seen in T-bills (see figure) and mortgage rates in just the last few days are really (as in "real" growth) quite troubling.
The BBA's seasonally adjusted figures for mortgage lending show that the number of home loans approved for house purchases reached a five-month high in October, at 40,851.
There is wide regional variation, with 41% of borrowers in Northern Ireland - 68,000 homeowners - in negative equity at the end of 2013, the figures from mortgage group HML show, In north-east England and Cumbria the figure is 16%.
This has been backed up by figures from mortgage lenders, which showed a 20% fall in the number of loans to home movers in October.
The latest Land Registry figures show house prices in London have risen by almost 10% over the past year – to £393,462 – and figures from mortgage lenders show that first-time buyers are having to borrow more than ever before to get on the property ladder.
The BoE figures show mortgage lending rose £3.6bn on the month in September in the biggest net increase since early 2008.
The Bank's figures for mortgage approvals during January confirm reports from lenders showing a strong start to the year.
Figures from mortgage lenders for 2014 showed half of buyers had help with a deposit from someone.
Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, said the figures for mortgage approvals showed the housing market had "lost momentum" this year.
