all quiet on the western front

I thought that Paul's mother dying was really moving. Paul learns his mother is in the hospital, and she will soon undergo an operation for cancer. The family has little money for the operation, and his father will work overtime. They give Paul some jam and potato-cakes before they leave. Not liking the cakes, he decides to give them to the Russians, then realizes his mother went to great pains to cook them, and gives them only a couple. While Paul is at the front he cannot comprehend his mother's pain: still she found the energy to cook him food.