I have an older gentleman in one of my astronomy classes. He's really interested in the material and has great attendance. He came to my office hours today, and we talked about many things - how he's come back to finish his degree after many health battles, his love of the Harry Potter books, his pursuit of night-time photography. But what he really came by to discuss was his poor performance on the last exam. He's concerned that his past health problems, including a few strokes, are impeding his ability to succeed in the course. So we talked about some tactics we can take to help him out. During this discussion, in what was probably just an attempt to show his sincere distress over his low score, he said to me, "When I saw my score on the exam yesterday, well, I hadn't been so depressed since my wife died."

I feel awful.