In what state does Jiro find his mother when he goes home to visit? What has happened to her?

In Chapter Six, Jiro goes to his parents' house, but his mother is not there. He starts a fire, and then he sets out the food. When his mother returns, she is disheveled and confused.... her kimono is ripped. She tells him that when she went to the food distribution at the shrine, supposedly from Saburo, she managed to get food, but she was attacked on the way home and all her food was stolen.