It's been a rough week.

On Tuesday, when I arrived at school, a colleague pulled me aside to talk to me. He told me that the father of one of my students was in the hospital after a "massive heart attack" and they didn't know much more.

The student had been out on Monday, and this is a kid who's NEVER absent, so I already wondered what was up.

This is also a student to whom I taught Physics last year and he chose to take Advanced Physics this year with me. He also spent many of his lunch hours in my room last year and some this year too, so needless to say, I know him better than most of his teachers.

At the urging of a colleague, I gave him a call Tuesday afternoon during my conference/prep period. He was at the hospital and said there were many family members around giving he and his mother support. We talked for a while and he said that the only book he brought to the hospital was his Physics book. I told him not to worry about doing his Physics homework and he said that it was the only subject he thought he might enjoy working on. I told him that if it helped get his mind engaged in something else, then by all means he should go for it. I told him that we were thinking about him lots and wanted to support him in whatever way he needed it. I think he really appreciated the call, but these things are so hard to tell sometimes.

I got an e-mail around 11 pm last night that the father passed away yesterday. Found out this morning that they decided that only the life support was keeping him alive and so they opted to pull the plug yesterday. This man was maybe 50 years old and has just recently run a half marathon; he was in good shape and seemed healthy. I can't imagine going through this now, but as a 17 year old, it's got to be about a billion times worse.

And then this morning, at the beginning of 2nd period, he shows up in my classroom, looking like hell, of course. I gave him a hug and he hung on pretty tight then we talked for a bit, and then we went right outside to talk a bit more. Unfortunately there were 25 other students inside who also needed and deserved my attention. After talking for a few minutes I explained that I had to get back inside and teach the class. I assumed he needed to get back on campus and was making the rounds to all his teachers to start to get things back on track.

Turns out he specifically came to school because he felt that he needed some extra support and decided to seek me out. I hope what he got from me was enough, for now. I'm sure he'll need a lot of support throughout the year.

I think my role is as the rock, someone to be there for him, support him, and keep him going, it'll be tough, but I think I'm up for it.

I've NEVER been through the loss of a parent or really anyone unexpectedly so I can't relate very well. I find that I don't know what to say, but hopefully being there is good enough, for now.

Any insight would be appreciated.