Meredith's partner is showing empathy. This is the ability to connect with the feelings of other people. It is important within relationships to share their problems and frustrations to one another. The other may not talk, all he has to do is listen and be in the other's presence.
According to this theory, we laugh (a physiological response to a stimulus), and consequently we feel happy (an emotion); we cry, and consequently we feel sad. ... According to the James–Lange theory of emotion, you would experience a feeling of fear only after this physiological arousal had taken place.