The heck are you talking about?

Obviously it's not crucial to the story, so they don't explain it. I PREFER minimal storytelling actually. That is a huge part of what makes The Last of Us work. We don't need to know everything little thing about every character. 

This is the weirdest thing I've seen in my life. Why are people still talking about ND and how they never made her relevant? That has zero to do with the fact not a single person has ever asked about the mother. Forget ND, I'm talking about we the gamers. I'm having so many *snap* moments in this thread. lol

Usually when someone has died, they still wear the ring.
It's possible they split, and then she died, or they just split.

But people have asked the mother. And your theory for why no one cares about the mother makes a lot less sense than people not wanting to speculate about something ND gave zero thought to.

So you don't think it's odd that not one single person in thousands upon thousands of threads and Youtube videos have never once asked 'what about the mother?' It's the first thing I asked my self when I finished the first playthrough. It's got absolutely nothing to do with ND and why you and others keep changing the subject is baffling. It's about the gamers. Why haven't we discussed it? Why is it we never once considered the fate of the mother?

Gamers have discussed it. I even linked to two such discussions. It's not "changing the subject" to mention ND or the games story, either :)

Sorry, I didnt' catch those links. They aren't what you would call prominant though. What you have to understand about me is I see TLOU as the greatest game ever made, which is why I've played and completed it 11 times (7 times on the PS3 and 4 times on the PS4). Because of my enthusiasm for TLOU I've watched WELL over 25 Let's Plays, dozens of breakdowns and opinion pieces, followed hundreds of threads and participated in many of them, and in ALL of this never saw a single mention of the Mother. Think about this too: At the end of the game Ellie says 'Her name was Riley and she was the first to die. And then it was Tess, and then Sam.' There seems to be a complete lack of matriarchy in the game and I'd like to ask ND why that is.

This is a separate conversation of course because I'm asking why we the gamer haven't really discussed it.

Being a single father of two girls, that opening scene fucking killed me. Anyway, I don't really see why there being little talk of Sarah's mother is disturbing, have you never watched a disney animated movie, or really any cartoon that features children almost ever?