The insensitivity and callousness is breath taking! I am horrified that that woman thought she was appropriate in her remarks and laughed! I would hope that you can possibly write a note to HR or to her directly and say that you were greatly offended by her comments, and that she would do better to keep such thoughts to herself in the future.
I haven't lost my mother yet, she's got a good few more years in her. I have lost my father, though, to diabetes and Alzheimer's. He lived in CT and I'm on the opposite coast in California. He died in a hospital, which DID relieve me, because, being the stubborn old man he was, I was deeply afraid that he could die alone in his apartment and not get found for days and days. Or, alone on bus bench in winter. Those were my fears, so I was very grateful that he died being taken care of as best they could. People who knew me knew I had a fairly distant relationship with him most of my life, and NONE when I was little, by his own choice. And still, nobody said anything to me other than how sorry they were that I had lost him. Because, for Pete's sake, that's the normal, humane and kind thing to say to somebody who's just lost a parent.
