My wife needed to cancel our reservation/stay due ...

My wife needed to cancel our reservation/stay due to receiving news from overseas that her eldest sister had died. My wife needed to change plans to travel immediately. She called the hotel. She was told by staff at the hotel that she would lose the $140 for a one night stay. No exceptions. She was then referred to the Hilton 1-800 numbers. They too did not want to return the money not even due to reason of bereavement.