The article is portraying the woman as a senile old lady when she died at 81. The article seems to be glossing over the fact that she wrote that will when she was 54, 4 years later made a change to it giving one of her daughters an antique desk if she can answer a couple of personal questions about her mother.
Sounds like after their parents divorced the kids sided with their father and the mother felt jaded(hence the 30 pieces of silver).
Those girls backed the wrong horse.