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Estudiaba y de repente mi madre me abrazó.

Estudiaba y de repente mi madre me abrazó.
I was studying and suddenly my mother hugged me.
From Lesson 151:Imperfect versus preterite·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Estudiaba y de repente mi madre me abrazó.

Why is estudiaba in the imperfect tense but abrazó is in the preterite (indefinido)?
This is the classic interrupted action pattern. Estudiaba (I was studying) sets the background scene, so it uses the imperfect tense. Abrazó (hugged) is the sudden, completed action that interrupts the scene, so it uses the preterite tense.
The lesson teaches us to use cuando (when) for the interrupting action. Can we use de repente instead?
Yes! The phrase de repente (suddenly) works exactly like cuando here. It acts as a bridge between the ongoing background action and the sudden interruption, and it is a massive clue that the next verb will be in the preterite tense.
Since estudiaba can mean I was studying or he/she was studying, how do we know it means I here?
Looking only at this sentence, you do not know for sure. You have to rely on the surrounding conversation to know who was studying. If no context had been established, the speaker would say yo estudiaba to make it perfectly clear.
Why does me come before abrazó instead of after it?
Me is an object pronoun. In Spanish, object pronouns must be placed directly before a conjugated verb. You cannot attach it to the end of a normal past tense verb, so it has to be me abrazó.

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