I have a mother like this.
When my husband died ( I was in my 20s) she was stricken with grief.
She always had a bad relationship with him and they rarely spoke, but at the death it was all about her.
She had friends visit, while she sobbed I was the one making ta and biscuits for everyone.
She was the one wailing at the crematorium and hand to be helped by staff into the car.
She was the one afterwards that needed her shopping done ( by me).
A drakma llama.
But so typical of her.
When I had my DD OH and I went to her house to pick up our toddler.
DD was 5 hours old, my mother had been looking after our two year old.
It was a daytime birth, early summer and my mother had been at home with a friend while they waited for news.
We arrived at 5 o clock or so and a short time afterwards OH left to pick up a takeaway meal so we could return home again and eat.
My mother wanted to hold the newborn ( understandable) then said " lets sit in the garden" - it was a warm late afternoon.
As she walked out she said to me " could you stick the kettele on" and while it's boiling bring out the wooden table and chairs from the garden shed so we can all sit outside"
!!
I said " mother I have given birth five hours ago and you are asking me to lift heavy wooden furniture around- I am actually struggling to walk here."
She turned and laughed- "oh yeah, I forgot".
Thanks Mum.