I don’t know how many of you have bereavement benefits and how that works for you.
But I worked as an RN in a busy ER in the US the year my grandmother’s health started to take a turn for the worst. And unfortunately she was in the Philippines.
My hospital said it could only award me bereavement benefits if she actually died during my trip there. Otherwise I would have to use my vacation benefits that I had been saving for my wedding & honeymoon a few months later (which had already been paid for and would also be in the Philippines).
And if anyone has ever flown from the US to the Philippines – you know the flight is minimum 20 hours. And the flight price is usually so high that it’s not worth it just to go for a few days. And at that point I hadn’t seen my family in at least 3 years.
I asked if I could use sick leave since they allow you to take sick days to take care of immediate family. But they said since she is my grandma, that is not immediate family. I told them that my grandmother practically raised me as if she was my mother. No go.
I just thought it was really sad that I had to choose between being able to say goodbye to my grandma vs having enough days to get married.