I agree with In The Woods. This guy is probably still married or at the very least with a live-in partner. The real question is not why did he stop the "relationship" so abruptly. The question is why was LW attracted to such an unavailable man?

He lived 1400 miles away, she saw him only every 6 weeks, he still had a lot of emotional investment (positive or negative, it doesn't matter)in the wife, and LW thought she'd found the love of her life? Get real, sweetheart. You subconsciously picked an unsuitable man and now are wondering what happened.

There is no one true soulmate or love of your life for the vast majority of people, and sad to say you cannot fully, completely trust anyone. The fact that you are pushing 40 and still don't realize these things does not bode well for your daughter. For her sake, I hope you do not get her involved in your relationships.

Unlike what a few of the previous posters stated, his dropping communication was not about you. It never is. It AFFECTS you, yes, but even if he had decided in his mind that he suddenly hated you personally and didn't want to see you again, it's still about HIM. And your pain is because of your misjudgment of him. He was not who you wanted him to be. And it's still neither here nor there. He's gone, and you're lucky he cut it off abruptly rather than stringing you along, wasting your precious time.

I would strongly suggest that you find a good therapist. Not to help you get over your misjudgment of this man, but to help you get some insight into what to accept in relationships for your and your daughter's needs in the future. Your primary responsibility at this point is really ensuring that she has an emotionally stable environment for the next 10 years.

I, too have limited use personally for religion, however, religious beliefs and practices are not something that one can rationally discuss. You believe what you believe and that's that, until YOU feel the need to change your beliefs. That said...

Forget the tithing. Your mother is 60 years old, has (by your definition) a crappy not-high-paying sales job, and is in the house she's in now only because she was married at the time she and her husband bought it, based on his or his and her income.

SHE CAN'T AFFORD TO PAY THE MORTGAGE ON THAT HOUSE!! PERIOD.

I understand you anger about feeling taken advantage of because your mother allowed you to give her money which she then gives to her church, but even if she didn't tithe, you are feeling the pinch more because you have become homeowners yourselves and can now see what a bottomless well of expenses it can be.

It is very difficult for people to realize that they can no longer afford the lifestyle they may have had for years. You and your husband even discussed with her about downsizing her house to decrease her expenses, but apparently she is not facing reality. I say forget the tithing, and tell her you regret that because of your increased expenses you will not be able to help her financially as much. Give her a date beyond which you cannot subsidize her anymore, and DON'T TALK ABOUT THE TITHING!!

Having been a practicing physician for close to thirty years, I can say unequivocally that men's complaints are almost always taken more seriously than women's unless the woman already has a documented abnormal medical history.

Fortunately, until menopause most women do not get severe cardiovascular disease, but afterward the rates are pretty equal to men.

The reasons men’s complaints are taken more seriously are varied, but I think a major one is that most men won’t go for a checkup on their own unless one foot is in the grave and the other is on a banana peel. Women, on the other hand, already go to the doctor more often because of pregnancy and gynecological checkups and usually don’t have any qualms about being perceived as weak if they make a physical complaint. The downside of this is that women’s complaints are often minimized, especially if they are premenopausal.

And for the woman with undiagnosed autoimmune diseases (the previous poster with lupus), there is a 5-7:1 ratio female to male incidence, age of incidence usually 15-40, and the early signs and symptoms are often general, such as fatigue, depression, mild anemia, which most women have at some point before menopause. This is not an excuse for not diagnosing, however. If a woman (or man for that matter) has a number of vague symptoms for more than a month or so, there are standard screening blood tests that should be done to try to pick up cases.

The key for healthcare providers in examining and treating patients is to not only take age, sex and previous health history into account, but to also evaluate the symptoms alone without the other factors. So if I told you the patient had a racing heartbeat and breathlessness, and left out the age, sex and cultural/ethnic background, you are forced to widen the diagnoses that are possible and hopefully avoid the tragedy that happened in Carol Lloyd’s family.