Why should I have to pay early termination fee due to issues beyond my control?

[ParisOLight]

My father recently died and I had to sell my home in order to take care of my elderly Mom.  I have been a loyal FIOS customer since they installed in our community.  I needed to place a termination order. This is why I am very upset when I asked for Verizon to waive the termination fee due to' circumstances beyond my control'. I actually liked Verizon but was never informed by customer service re early termination fees when I changed a pkg thru the years just to get the right channels.  Now I know why people dislike the monopoloy on cables service contract deals.