Lizzie broke up every relationship Silver was in while still living in Leadville. Her objections are still not clear, but it seems she thought all of Silver's suitors were golddiggers, or in this case, silver diggers, after only one thing, the Matchless Mine. Considering her behavior with her beloved daughter, and consistently choosing the well-being of the mine over Silver's, Lizzie must have been suffering from some type of obsessive condition, eventually delusion maybe? If she hadn't dressed in rags the last 30 years of her life would we still think she was crazy? Her behavior was too much for Silver. She moved to Denver to get away from her mother's steel grip on her and perhaps secondarily to further her writing career.