Overwhelmed

Something happened at work today that completely overwhelmed me.  I went to the office after lunch to check my mailbox and sneak a treat (they had food for Kendra's birthday and Staci made this yummy toffee).  I ended up staying for a few minutes and chatting.  While I was in there a man came in and asked if there was a way to get copies of his daughter's paperwork (report cards, shot records, enrollment forms, etc).  Well it turned into a bigger ordeal than any of us anticipated and I ended up having to help.  The story...this dad has been serving our country in Iraq.  He received a call two days ago that he was being sent home.  While this should have been a happy phone call, it wasn't.  It was during this call that he found out that his daughter was being taken away from his ex-wife.  Apparently, he has been completely unaware of some "things" going on in his daughter's life.  He didn't go into details as to why his daughter was being removed from her mother's custody, but he didn't have to.  Can you even imagine?!  It was all over this poor guy's face.  He was frantically driving around Tulsa trying to track down as much information as he could.  Unfortunately, his daughter hasn't been at our school since she was in KG.  She is now in 3rd grade....so the information we had was limited and dated.  We did do some digging to determine that she had been to at least 4 schools during this time.
I can't easily put into words why this upset me as much as it did.  As a parent, I can't imagine being overseas...assuming that your child was healthy and being taken care of, only to find out that this is not the case.  What an overwhelming and helpless feeling.  I wish we could have helped him more...I hope that he gets everything he needs to really help his daughter...I hope that whatever her mother has done hasn't caused any permanent damage.