Though not a member of any white supremacist group, Turk's mother is nonetheless a racist and hateful woman: she spits on the black man who she believed killed her eldest son, Tanner. Following his death and the split with her husband, Turk's father, she turns to alcohol, loses her job, and moves into Gramps's house with Turk. She dies of liver failure when Turk is in his early twenties.