I don't know. You can't fake having a hook hand, and by all accounts she didn't have that before Chance. He might have talked big about knowing how to drive, like he does everything, and she might've been dim enough to believe him.
I think Sally would be ideal, but I'm fascinated by grief in lolcows. Grief fucks you up, and Chance can't handle fucked up emotions. So I would want to talk to family who knew him when his mother Connie Jean died, and he was 17. Did he change? Did he even process what that meant? Sure, that wasn't who raised him, but he's protective of Ruple, who has similarly had nothing to do with him. It seems to really strike a nerve when people bring Connie Jean up, too.
I'd want to talk to anyone who saw that shift.
And maybe that ex-stepdad from Florida, who locked him out in the winter and almost gave his legs frostbite.