What do you say in this situation?

[grinningghost]

Someone tells you they must go out of town right away for a family emergency. But they don't say what the emergency is.

I was faced with this recently and at the time I just said "I'm sorry, I hope everything will be OK."

Well, it wasn't OK- there was a death in the family - but I didn't find that out until yesterday.

So my original response was pretty stupid.

 

[Evil Genius]

You didn't know so I think your response was appropriate.

 

[freckles and boo]

I think that was an appropriate response. How could you know? Besides, it is better than saying "Yeah, whatever."

 

[wardfamily1]

Yeah, totally appropriate. You didn't know, don't worry about it.

 

[1Prince2Princesses]

That's a perfectly acceptable thing to say. Don't beat yourself up over it.

If it's someone close to you, you can always offer help, like, "Is there anything I can do for you?"

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

That's exactly what I would have said..perfectly appropriate. You DO hope everything will be OK, with the funeral and the family getting through this..

 

[mirthmaiden]

I would have said exactly the same thing.

 

[Beth76]

You were fine with what you said. To me, "family emergency" means that something bad happened, but it could get better. If someone died I wouldn't have said "family emergency" I would have said "death in the family".