It is very rural, and her only way back on Sunday would have been either if my husband had gone to get her (which would probably have resulted in a scene with her mother) or, as did happen, mum's friend brought her back. She did set boundaries a few months ago, following finding out her mother's hair strand test results (mum has also lost her son, SD's half brother, who was removed from her by Social Services last November) which were ordered by the Courts in her residence case for her son, because up until then she had been denying her alcoholism to her daughter. We found out from the boys dad that her results showed 'excessive use of alcohol', which we knew they would of course. Anyway SD was fuming, absolutely livid, and she wrote her mother a rather harsh letter telling her exactly what she thought of her and told her she didn't want to see her again. Then, after 3 months, her mother tried the 'I've got cancer' thing (she didn't) to lure SD back into communicating with her, and since then their relationship has been more difficult and SD has hung up on her on the phone a few times. It seems she's able to be more stubborn and independent when not face to face with her mum, which is understandable. The woman still instills fear into her, and I guess when she's with her physically it's harder to be forthright.
I'm wondering now if perhaps SD could write her mother another letter, explaining how she felt about Sunday and telling her mother she doesn't want to do it again. Her mum will probably not respond for a few weeks and then pretend like nothing's happened, but that's okay, at least she'll be told by the horses mouth so to speak.
My husband did actually text her back on Monday and suggested she call SD to get this information from her, but so far she hasn't contacted her.