Does He Really Not Care?

"The sun was the same as it had been the day I'd buried Maman, ..." (page 58)

"And from the peculiar little noise coming through the partition, I realized he was crying.  For some reason I though of Maman." (page 39)  

Out of all the questions that arose from The Stranger, the one that puzzles me the most is about Meursault's mother.  Why does she keep coming up after her death?  The quotes above show some of the many times Meursault would think of his mother.  Did he not say in the beginning of the book that he just didn't care about her death?  The very first sentence in the book starts like this:

"Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know." (page 3)

From then on, he does not really mention his mother until he starts speaking about Raymond and Salamano.   She comes up more and more often creating confusion in the mind of the reader.  Is he really an existentialist? He seems to care about some of his actions even though he does what he wants. In Part 2 of the novel, he finally admits feelings for his mother.  He clearly states:

"What I can say for certain is that I would rather Maman hadn't died." (page 65) 

All these things cause me to really ponder if Albert Camus is an existentialist or not.  Is Meursault a reflection of Camus?  Comparing the beginning of the novel with the end,  Meursault contradicts himself regarding his beliefs or ideas. I believe that Camus is some what an existentialist.  He expresses his ideas in a form of not caring about life in the end, but sometimes he makes it seem like he does.  Does he only care about certain unfortunate events?  I guess these questions cannot be answered by reading a book, but by asking the author himself.  A reader can infer what he or she wants from his texts, but only Camus knows for sure what was going on through his mind while writing the book.