"A minute later he asked, 'Is that your mother in there?' Again I said, 'Yes.' 'Was she old?' I answered, 'Fairly,' because I didn't know the exact number" (16).
Aside from Meursault's overall reaction to the death of his mother, the fact that he seems to have no knowledge of her age at her time of passing, and the fact that he does not seem the least bit concerned about this, is odd. Perhaps it had been a while since he had seen her, but until this point it is reasonable to think that he occasionally wrote to her, perhaps on her birthday, or remembered her to some extent while they were separated.
A birthday is a milestone, a coming of age, a celebration. There are years that stick so firmly in our minds it is as if we could close our eyes and relive them, whether they are good or bad memories.
It would make sense that Meursault had a general idea of how old his mother was, but then again, a lot of his behavior thus far has not been typical.
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