they say that after someone dies, they’re remembered more fondly than ever. this is true to an extent with jennifer fuller. she definitely had her issues, that much was clear. but she was a strong, resilient woman who was trying her best and kate always saw that. she was always closer with her mother than her father, and jennifer’s death shook her to her core. jen was a stay-at-home mom, and took on most of the responsibility of raising kate (and, later, scott).  a lot of the skills kate has (sewing, baking, cooking, things like that) she learned from her mother. 

learning her mother’s death was intentional was the one thing the temple did that completely turned her world upside down. it completely skewed her view of her mother and the things that happened leading up to jennifer’s death. kate doesn’t think less of jen for taking her own life, though (selfishly) she does kind of resent her for abandoning her family like that. forgiveness is most important, but her mother is still an extremely sore subject for her to talk about and she tends not to bring her up other than brief mentions.