may be dealing (as best they can) with unresolved grief, in one form or another
amazing things can happen when you don't immediately respond from a place of ego but observation; I used to be "the escalation person" in a call center long ago, meaning I was the VERY LAST person with whom the most irate callers would end up . . . you let them vent, you accept it's "not personal" and then you find common ground and work towards a common solution
this works, provided you respond from empathy not ego
try it -- you'll see that it is #true