Is it normal to care so much about a teacher?

I used to get along very well with my history teacher (he's 40-something) at the beginning of this term, we used to chat quite a lot. He lives in the same area as me so we usually met on trains. I trusted this man very much, and you know, life seemed jolly good with him telling me smart things, me being able to tell him stories about my life, or just mess around. I'm not going to lie, I did start to like him.

After a while he kept avoiding me in public and never looked at me anymore, and I was really sad. Later on he stopped for a while and explained that he didn't want anyone to think he was being nicer to me during tests, and such.

But then, two months later he quitted ever making contact and he ignored everything i said, and he was obviously avoiding me in the streets and he'd "miss" the train when he spotted me on it. I asked him if he did it on purpose, and he said yes, but he never told me any reason for so.

I cannot even describe how bad it felt, because I trusted this man, and i loved him, in a way, too, and I got to know him so much and we'd shared so many things, and i felt very honoured to have heard about what he does or what he likes. Sometimes I might get over-dramatic and think it's a crush, but to be honest, he was more of a father-figure-substitute-thingy. And I really hate how we hate each other now. I'd never wanted this to happen, since I know him quite well, or, at least a tiny part of his personality.

So am I normal for caring about this at all?