In my office I have one very dear empolyee. She is still young but she seems to be much older and very mature. She sees all the work which has to be done and she even does more without a word from my part. She is a shy person, doesn't talk much about herself and the age difference between us is also noticeable. We had several discussions about heavy issues and she was always very composed.
3 weeks ago she got sick and had to stay home for several days, when she came back she was still weak, couldn't eat much but didn't want to let us work without her. She is really irreplaceable!
Towards the evening just before closing she came to my room looking very down, her face was blotchy and her eyes were red. First she just stood there, finally she managed to tell me that her boyfriends uncle just died, with a broken voice. I just saw the tears glisten in her eyes and she wiped them away as soon as they left her eyes, no lip curl. I stood up uncertain if she would allow that I hug her but she immediately started to turn around and keeping her distance. I told her to go home and leave everything at work. We talked some more and she always had this wavering voice, as soon as you could hear the emotion in her voice she smiled and managed to go on talking without braking into tears.
Maybe I am a coward that I didn't hug her, maybe it is the gap between us from boss to empoloyee, or maybe it was just correct like this.
The next day we had a good talk about the circumstances of the death of her bf uncle and she told me that she is tired because of her illness and the pressure of a new death, because the bf  father died 3 months ago. A few weeks ago she had an exam because of a failed operation she had and it seems like she has to undergo surgery again. If this time the surgery doesn't work out it is possible that she can't go on working in her job anymore.
Afflicted soul, why do some people have to  go through so much bad luck in such young age?