Responses
Employers can give workers a long term leave of absence for a couple reasons. Usually it's for things like:
materity/paternity leave
(2-8 months)
long term disability (like cancer or a major injury)
(1+ years, requires a crapton of paperwork)
or in this case family emergency. Though usually that would be the shortest at a few months at most.

One year off request sounds pretty ridiculous for a office worker ( ̄∇ ̄")... maybe a mistake in translation?