Dead Grandmothers

It's no secret that a student claiming a grandmother has perished close to midterms, finals, or the due date of a very large project has a high percentage of being made up.  Numerous people have written about this phenomena before; they're typically professors who have had the excuses given to them.  I happened to enter my college years with two grandmothers and graduate with none.  In fact, I had four close family deaths while I was in school but none of my professors questioned me when I said I was going to be out of town.  

My first grandmother died while I was a junior.  It was after midterms and rather sudden, but she was 96 years old.  The next grandmother died my senior year during a really busy time of the term.  Later that spring my surrogate mother for a summer passed away very unexpectedly and it was a rough couple of weeks.  And it was during my fifth year (year two of masters) that my cousin died.  Hers was the only funeral that I could not attend because it was short notice and during the middle of the week.  My professors never asked me for documentation (though I could have easily provided it) and were very kind to me during those rough patches.

One of my grandmothers and my cousin.

The reason I'm bringing this up?  Next week is finals week.  My boyfriend's grandmother has been in a very critical condition since last Saturday and it's not looking good.  My boyfriend and I have been together long enough where I've seen this grandmother practically every holiday.  While I'd love to think there is going to be a happy ending and his grandmother will get better, no one is holding out much hope.  I'm just hoping that if it is a sad ending these professors will be as understanding as the ones at my old school.