It had been a fitting farewell for a comedy legend, mixing humour with tender tributes.
At the funeral of Terry Jones, his Monty Python co-stars had sent a floral tribute bearing his immortal Life Of Brian line 'Not the Messiah, just a very naughty boy', while his wife Anna Soderstrom spoke of his 'good-natured and generous' character.
After the service last February, the mourners retreated to a nearby pub in North London for a small wake, where Anna, then 36, allowed herself a moment to reflect on the five years she had spent helping to care for her ailing husband as he succumbed to the ravages of dementia.
Anna met Terry at Oxford University in 2003 when she was a studying for a modern language degree and he was giving a lecture to promote a book
Terry's death at the age of 77 had left a gaping hole in her life, and that of their ten-year-old daughter Siri, but at least they would be financially secure.
At the wake, a woman came up to speak to her. Anna was expecting condolences, but the stranger turned out to be a lawyer representing Terry's ex-wife, Alison Telfer, delivering the stinging news that she and the comedian's two grown-up children would be contesting Terry's will.
Choking back tears as she recalls that moment, Anna says: 'Terry had been dead for only a matter of days, he had just been cremated. It shocked me.'
At issue are the proceeds from the sale of the house in Highgate, North London, that Anna shared with Terry and where she nursed him in his final years.
'After years of me desperately trying to keep him safe, this was happening,' she says. 'Within a few days, I was getting solicitors' letters telling me they wanted the house that I was living in with our daughter – the half-sister of Terry's other children. It absolutely broke my heart.'
Anna says the dispute, due to be fought at the High Court, threatens not only to tarnish Terry's memory but also to jeopardise the future of Siri, who suffers from autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Anna says Siri, now 12, was profoundly affected by Terry's gradual deterioration in the years before he died.
The courtroom battle will pitch Anna against not only his ex-wife but her two stepchildren, furniture designer Sally and TV producer Bill.
Anna, a clothes designer born in Sweden, is emphatic about what Terry would make of the dispute.
Anna says the dispute, due to be fought at the High Court, threatens not only to tarnish Terry's memory but also to jeopardise the future of Siri
'He would be turning in his grave, seeing what they are doing to me and his daughter,' she said. 'This is the last thing Terry would have wanted.
He lived for making people happy, not ripping lives apart. He would have stopped this, he would not have allowed this to carry on.
'Poor Terry, it is so sad to see the disrespect that he is being shown. They have forced me to sell my home, I had to borrow money from friends. I don't know what else they want to do to me.'
Central to the dispute is Terry's mental capacity when he made his final will at the beginning of July 2015.
In it, he left Fegg Features, the company that handles royalties from his work and which last year held more than £400,000 in shareholder funds, to Alison, Sally and Bill. The Highgate house – purchased in 2005 – was bequeathed to Anna.
She sold the property for £2.8 million in March, but the comedian's first wife and older children argue they are entitled to a share in the profits as Terry did not understand what he was signing nor the consequences of putting Anna's name on the mortgage.
Not so, insists Anna, who met Terry at Oxford University in 2003 when she was a studying for a modern language degree and he was giving a lecture to promote a book.
Around the time he signed the will, Terry was working on the Simon Pegg film Absolutely Anything, which he directed, and a theatre project. He even travelled to America in April 2015 to appear on Jimmy Fallon's TV chat show.
Anna says that Terry's advancing years meant she had to have her name on documents when the house was re-mortgaged in 2015 and, that in any event, he wanted her name on the property deeds.
Most tellingly, at least in Anna's view, is that Terry had a dementia test a few months before signing the mortgage papers.
They had decided to have it after he found it hard to remember his lines during the Pythons' celebrated run of ten comeback gigs in London in 2014.
'Terry was struggling to remember his lines which was very unusual for him and it frustrated him,' says Anna. 'So I took him for a dementia test with our local GP where he was asked questions such as what the Queen's name is, and to count and spell backwards. He
