Her father endured a series of failed entrepreneurial ventures and the instability caused her mother to move them abruptly to the Trefethen family house in Taunton, Massachusetts. She lived there with her mother, aunt, and grandparents who did not get along well and consistently spoke ill of her father, to her dismay.[7] Her mother, whom Marjory characterized as "high strung", was committed to a mental sanitarium in Providence several times. Her parents' separation and the contentious life with her mother's family caused her to suffer from night terrors.[8] She credited her tenuous upbringing with making her "a skeptic and a dissenter" for the rest of her life.[9]