Just SLF, but as I'm in education I hear excuses for being late and emergencies all the time. What I observe is that much of being late is due to bad planning or procrastination, not an actual unexpected situation.
Much of this thread has made me feel warm with the humanity of so many people, as evidenced by the original topic of this thread as well as stories of getting a few precious hours with a dying parent. Yet what of the idiot who knows that a parent is very ill and still goes off on a ski week instead of being cautious and staying near home just in case something happens? I do NOT suggest this is the case for any who have posted here, but there are people who take unreasonable risks expecting that others will help if needed, instead of avoiding the risk in the first place.
If I miss a connection and spend 24 hours in a strange city due to a true emergency as described in this thread many times, then I see it as a happy adventure. If we depart 1 minute late because of waiting for some idiot, who should reasonably (OK what is reasonable!!!) have not left home in the first place, needs to rush back home, then I am grumpy.
Help when truly needed is beautiful, but facilitating idiotic decisions only promotes more of those decisions.