Agreed. She's in a word, damaged, and she's being taken advantage of. I'm not grokking all of this naked hatred towards this obviously unstable woman.
As it happens, I don't tend to have much sympathy for "difficult childhoods" when they try to use it to explain their antisocial behavior. Every one of us will suffer a loss of a loved one in our lifetime--most, however, will not use it as an excuse to be a jerk.