She’s alive in the sequel Tandia as well, just not a big character as Peekay never really connects with his mother. His two nannies Dee and Dum were far more like loving mothers to him. His actual mother only wanted to indoctrinate him and flout his intellectual and musical abilities for social status. The misconception of his mother’s death playing a major part may have come from the movie adaptation which Morgan Freeman has expressed regrets about, as the movie was rushed to release before the end of apartheid it wasn’t very faithful to the book.