Pride and prejudice?

I've started a new temporary job. 


Yesterday morning, a very smiley man in the corridor said 'Hello!'. He was very welcoming and about a head shorter than me and had Down's syndrome.


An hour later, he cheerfully helped me with a printing issue.


A bit after that, I went to make myself some tea in the communal kitchen and heard him crying at the other end of the room. 


I became very British and left him to it. Actually, it's probably as much personal preference as Britishness because when I'm crying I find it really annoying when people notice it and don't just let me get on with things. 


Another tea drinker entered the kitchen.


'You alright there?', he asked matter-of-factly whilst boiling the kettle.


Big gasp of air. 'Yes, thank you, I'm just a bit upset', answered the man genuinely and politely.


How unusual, I thought, that he didn't rationalise his crying. 'I'm just having a bad day/sick of my boss/tired/broke up with...' Most people justify their emotions even though you can rarely adequately explain what it is that has overcome you. 


Or people answer by dismissing the gravity of being upset: 'Oh, ignore me, I'm being silly'.


'Anything I can do to help?' asked the kettle boiler neither kindly nor unkindly.


'No. Thank you.'


We two tea drinkers added milk and left the kitchen feeling we had done what we could. I know at least one of us thought that the crying must in some way be related to the man's syndrome, and I strongly suspect we both did.


I later found out that the cheerful, polite, crying man had lost a friend that day.