One less . . .

We were one student short this morning and I drew the short straw.  I got to call the house and find out why.  

The phone was answered by a woman who asked me if M.S. (missing student) had called me to tell me he was going to drop the class.  I said no because there was truly no way to call me; however, he could have called the Aquatics Department and I just hadn't received the message yet.  I thought that was the end of the phone call, but it wasn't! 

I found out that MS was living with his grandmother, whom I was talking to, and and not his grandfather because he had died two years ago.  He was an only child and used to being alone.  He was living with his grandmother because he had been abused by his birth mother (grandma's daughter-in-law) since birth.  Grandma's son, MS's dad, had died when MS was three.  Because of his abuse and the tragedies he'd endured, he has a sensory issue and all the touching we did in the pool yesterday had sent him over the edge.  He wasn't coming back.  

And that's all I wanted to know in the beginning.  Then I began to wonder - could we have done something more or different?  But the honest answer is "No".  Without any background information until after the fact, no we couldn't have.  It's hard, but sometimes life is just hard.