I've been close friends with her for nearly three years.
At first when I met her she said her mum was dead, had died in 2012.
Her family live in another country so I don't know them. On a few occasions I have waved to her sisters when she's been face-timing them, and on one occasion I sent some small gifts to her newborn niece. But I've never met them.
Last night she told me that actually her mum was alive. She said that they fell out pretty badly and had no relationship at all. I thought, yeah, makes sense, probably easier to tell people she's died.
I asked when she last talked to her mum and she said, "We talk occasionally, about two or three times a month. I send her money".
This is someone I hang out with nearly every weekend. People joke about us being sisters.
Has anyone ever told a sustained lie like this? Or been on the receiving end? I'm not sure how I feel about it yet but it is very weird.