Oh the Tales they Tell!

I think I've caught myself a pathological liar, but of course, that isn't a nice thing to say about someone, so we'll say that she's a "sower."
Anyway, there's this woman who comes to classes, and I've always felt terrible for her. When I first met her, she explained to me that she was an orphan and was raised in an orphanage by nuns. At the time, I'd just started my November novel, and I was writing about two girls who were living in an orphanage run by nuns. I tried to discreetly pose a few questions to this woman, but found out--strangely--nothing.
I didn't have much interaction with her again until just before Christmas. She sat in on my class, because her teacher was home sick. We were talking about Tu (the familiar form of "you") and Vous (the either formal or plural form of "you"). This woman piped up, saying that back in her home country, she had been the boss of an office building, and she'd used Vous with all of her employees (to show respect) but had asked them to use Tu with her. "Because they should feel comfortable, you know?" she'd said. I'd thought, "How sensitve of her." I didn't really think any more about this conversation. Until last Wednesday.
And last Wednesday, our paths crossed again.
She was in the kitchen talking to her teacher. I came in to put away the leftover tea and biscuits from tea, and she was saying, "I'm 54 years old, and I've never worked a day in my life. Who's going to hire me now?" She went on to explain that the government didn't want to continue giving her allocations but wanted her to find a job instead. She then said, "I'm trained to be a hair stylist, and I almost was hired at a salon in Paris once." Her teacher asked why it didn't work out, and this woman shook her head, looking disgusted, and said, "They don't work with L'Oreal, and I just can't work with anything but L'Oreal."
In any case, however, a flag went up in my head, since not even a month ago, she'd mentioned being the boss of that distinguished office building.
Later on that same day, she said to her teacher, "...I jumped into the sea to save two drowning children." She went on to explain that as soon as she and the children were pulled out of the water, photographers had descended upon them with their cameras, and she'd said, "Please don't take my photograph!" They asked why, and she said it was because her father was a distinguished member of the Supreme Court and she didn't think it appropriate that his daughter show up in the paper.
An orphan, then?
Anyway, I'm sure there's a reason for all of this, and yet still, it feels so strange to be hearing so many different--and blantantly contradictory!--stories. At least they're original, though.