This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion, but while I would absolutely never include anything like that in a syllabus, I can get why he/she has it in there.

Students come up with a lot of excuses to get out of due dates. In my years as an instructor, I'd say 90% of them are either broken laptops/computers or dead grandmothers (never grandfathers). It seems harsh, but while I would have accepted those at face value in my early years, I've had that beaten out of me.

I had a girl claim her grandmother had died the day she was supposed to do a group presentation. She said she was flying home immediately. She was at the beach that afternoon.

A guy said his grandmother had died, and his flight was during my class. I guess it was delayed, though, since he was at the theater that night, laughing about the stupid instructors who believed him. (Interesting moment when I leaned over from the row behind and tapped him on the shoulder.)

One guy had six dead grandmothers across two classes with me.

Another guy brought in an obituary (I never asked for one). It was fake.

A girl emailed to say her grandmother had passed two days before. That sent me into a panic, because I knew the woman and was very fond of her. She was quite surprised to learn she was supposed to be dead.

Now, if a student claims a relative died (I've really only ever had grandmothers, though), I tell them to get any extensions cleared with the university counselor. None of them ever have.

...so while this wasn't something the instructor should have included, I'm assuming this was a facetious reference to excuses and not a lack of soul.