You mentioned she smoked. Did she have some sort of COPD? When you say she was weird about fat, do you mean, she avoided it as much as possible?
Ma smoked Raleigh studs forever. Got some nice stuff with those coupons, but they didn’t offer an iron lung. And she died from a smoking-induced heart attack. She just avoided fat, for her figure. But one can’t avoid it all, drain it off the hamburg, etc, just common sense. Gotta use a couple TB full to make a great gravy, though...