sigh
I'm feeling rather down, because my friend, Erin, lost her grandmother today. Sorrow is very contagious. I tried my best to help her find an airfare she could afford to go up to Colorado for the weekend, but there wasn't any such ticket with any of the online travel agents I knew of. She said she'd call a local agent on the phone.
I wanted to hug her and let her know how sorry I felt for her, but proper decorum dictated otherwise, being in the computer lab and not being known for being an empathic person. It actually put her off that I was being "so nice" to her "for a change."
I've never had to deal with the death of a close relative... the only deaths I've had to deal with are various pets I've felt incredibly close to, and my paternal grandmother who I never felt at all close to, and she died when I was young and just thought of her as some crotchety old woman, not as someone I could be friends with later in life were she still alive.
Right now's a shitty time to have some family emergency happen though. These two weeks are midterm time, and Erin has three of them next week. She understandably feels that she'd rather stay at home for all of next week, and I reminded her that the university has a policy that for such circumstances, the professors are required to accomodate the student with a make-up exam.
I hope things work out for her.